Washington - A day after OPEC meetings failed to reach agreement to increase oil output, sending oil prices back to over $100 a barrel, Senator Menendez(D-J) today announced he would cosponsor Senator Herb Kohl's (D-WI) "No Oil Producing & Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Act" (S. 394; also currently Senate Amendment 389). The bipartisan legislation would end the stranglehold that cartels have on the price of oil and prevent them from engaging in practices to increase gas prices artificially in the future. It would do so by allowing the US Department of Justice to take action against foreign states, such as members of OPEC, for anticompetitive collusive practices to either fix gas prices or limit the production of oil to raise gas prices. The legislation also states that OPEC's activities are not protected by sovereign immunity and federal courts should not decline to hear such a case based on the "act of state" doctrine.
"OPEC's anticompetitive actions to manipulate the price of oil translate directly into pain at the pump for American consumers," said Senator Menendez. "This legislation is an attempt to put an end to the stranglehold that OPEC has on oil prices worldwide, restore market forces, and prevent prices from continuing to escalate unreasonably. In these hard economic times Americans' simply cannot afford to be held over a barrel by OPEC."
Click here for a PDF of the legislation:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s394rs/pdf/BILLS-112s394rs.pdf
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