NATION : States Seek to Limit Oil Gouging

Lawmakers from energy-dependent states proposed legislation today that would allow the President to prohibit unreasonable oil and gasoline price increases during a national emergency.

“The price of gas has gone up more than 20% in the last month and has stayed up, even when crude oil prices dropped temporarily, and even when other nations began increasing their output of oil to make up for the Iraq and Kuwait shortfall,” said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.).

The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the major oil industries, called the proposal a thinly disguised effort to revive the price controls of the 1970s that led to long lines at gas stations.