P. M. BRIEFING : Senate Bill Would Turn Oil Price Gouging Into Criminal Offense

Five senators from the Northeast and Midwest proposed legislation today aimed at heading off a repeat of the surge in home heating oil prices that occurred last December.

In an effort to prevent price gouging, the bill would make it a criminal offense to knowingly create a fuel shortage for the purpose of increasing oil prices, and it also seeks extra money to help poor Americans pay heating bills.

The proposal was put together by Sens. Joseph A. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and also sponsored by Sens. William S. Cohen (R-Me.), Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.) and Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.).

Oil industry officials have said the year-end price hikes were the result of increased demand for heating oil during the coldest December on record. Adding to upward price pressures, they argued, was an explosion at a large Baton Rouge, La., refinery and some oil tankers’ inability to navigate frozen waterways.

But during House and Senate hearings last month, members of Congress and consumer activists accused oil companies of manipulating supplies in order to jack up prices and called for a federal investigation into possible price gouging.