Byron Dorgan: “I also wish to speak about a subject that has some relationship but an issue that the American people were facing before…”

“I also wish to speak about a subject that has some relationship but an issue that the American people were facing before the hurricane hit. Prior to the devastating Hurricane Katrina, the Senate Energy Committee had scheduled a hearing on gasoline and oil prices. That hearing is now going on. I spent the last 2 hours attending it. It was scheduled before this hurricane. Obviously, when the hurricane hit, a number of oil refineries and a couple of major pipelines shut down. It has had an impact beyond that which was occurring prior to the hurricane. Prior to the hurricane hitting, oil prices had already risen $30 a barrel above that which existed a year and a half to 2 years ago. The major integrated oil companies that have become larger through mergers and concentration in recent years were already earning record profits. Last evening, a friend of mine went to a gas station and pumped gasoline into his car and his son's car, about 15 gallons in each car. The bill was $103 dollars. Every American citizen understands that sticker shock when they pull up to the gas pump. We are told by some: It is the free market. Here is what has happened to the profits of U.S. major oil and gas companies in billions of dollars from 2002, at which point they were $20 billion, to this year, when they are going to be over $100 billion. This is not a free market; this is a market with clogged arteries. It is OPEC pricing.…”