Leaders Question Gasoline Prices

The Washington Post reports:

Congressional leaders yesterday planned to ask President Bush to order investigations into possible price gouging by oil companies as crude oil prices hit new highs on world markets and average gasoline prices in the nation's capital blew through the $3-a-gallon mark.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) are preparing to send a letter to the president Monday asking him to direct the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to investigate alleged price gouging and instruct the Environmental Protection Agency to issue waivers that might make it easier for oil refiners to produce adequate gasoline supplies, Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said.

No word yet on whether Hastert and Frist want to investigate why college tuition has gone up every year for the last 20 years often times greater than CPI.Also,no word yet on hearings to investigate how housing prices keep outpacing inflation (even in some areas like Boston that are losing population).I guess the education lobby and the housing industry really are more powerful than oil industry.