Congressman David Cicilline co-sponsored a bill passed by the House yesterday to crack down on alleged price gouging by oil companies. As of this morning, Triple-A reported Rhode Island --with its $4.72/gallon gas has the 15th highest gas prices in the country. Cicilline said Americans shouldn't feel squeezed by corporate profiteering.
On the House Floor, the Rhode Island Democrat said:
"Gas companies would like us to think that these prices are rising SOLELY because of inflation and supply chain issues. But, if these prices were solely based on inflation or supply chain issues, these companies wouldn’t be seeing the record profits they’ve seen in recent months.
The real issues are greed, manipulation, and market concentration. They’re trying to take advantage of the pandemic as an opportunity to raise prices just because they can and consumers are paying for it."
House Republicans argued there's no proof of price-gouging.
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