mr. speaker , well , the majority party is shocked , shocked that price gouging took place in the wake of katrina . 
of course , they turned a blind eye to the gouging of consumers for months and years before that by big oil working in collusion with opec . 
in the last 4 years , the top five oil companies have made $ 254 billion of profits . 
exxon-mobil , in the quarter before katrina , $ 14 billion in one-quarter . 
and this bill does nothing to provide price relief to consumers or prevent gouging . 
big oil gets a pass yet again . 
they are not getting as big of a gift this time , just a pass . 
they point the finger at the retailers . 
well , with rare exceptions , the gouging is not at the retail level . 
producers of gas , they are getting 46 percent more , 47 cents a gallon ; refiners , they are up to 250 percent in one year , 70 cents a gallon . 
every american is paying 70 cents a gallon more to the refiners and 2 cents more on average to the retail people . 
it is not the retailers who are price gouging . 
the chairman says `` we have closed 175 refineries. '' he can only say `` we '' if he is the oil industry . 
the oil industry has consciously colluded to close refineries to squeeze supply to drive up the price . 
it is the same thing enron did in california to stick it to everybody on the west coast of america . 
tried and true . 
the industry has been doing that for years . 
it is not environmental laws or regulation which have closed these refineries . 
they have been closed by mergers and a conscious decision of the chief operating officers and ceos of big oil to drive up their profits , and boy , have they done that . 
unfortunately , it is about to destroy small businesses and consumers across america . 
but they still can not take them on . 
they can not take on their benefactors here on the floor . 
the president offered last year to let valero or anybody else build a new refinery on a closed military base , waiving all environmental laws , and the chief operating officer of valero , stock up 263 percent in one year , you thought google was doing good , he said , why would we do that ? 
it is working really well the way it is . 
it is phenomenally profitable for them and the few others who still operate refineries . 
we need real help for americans , short-term relief against price gouging , take on opec in the world trade organization . 
and then we need longer-term new technology , new fuels , more efficiency , true energy independence for the united states of america from big oil and the saudi and the opec cartels . 
that would be something for the american people . 
you are not doing that . 
