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 .  