Ron Wyden: “in the final hours of this session of the Senate, the Senate is going to approve two nominees to the Federal Trade…”

“in the final hours of this session of the Senate, the Senate is going to approve two nominees to the Federal Trade Commission. I take a few minutes tonight to describe why I want to be on record tonight against the nomination of both these individuals. When it comes to energy, the Federal Trade Commission essentially is out of the consumer protection business. Well over a year ago, I released a report documenting the Federal Trade Commission's campaign of inaction when it comes to protecting our consumers at the gas pumps. My report documented how the Federal Trade Commission has refused to challenge oil industry mergers the Government Accountability Office says would raise gas prices at the pump by 7 cents a gallon alone on the west coast. My report also documented how the Federal Trade Commission failed to act when refineries had been shut down or to stop anticompetitive practices such as redlining and zone pricing. Since then nothing has changed. Despite what we saw recently--record high prices for consumers, and record profits by major oil companies--what we have seen is a record level of inaction by the Federal Trade Commission on behalf of energy consumers. In the last few months, when we saw the price of gasoline soar to an all-time record high, the Federal Trade Commission was invisible.…”