Rising gasoline prices have re-ignited calls on Capitol Hill for a windfall tax on major energy producers’ profits. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, over the weekend said lawmakers should consider levying the tax.

“I think it’s something worth considering among a number of options,” Specter said during CNN’s “Late Edition” on Sunday. He also was openly critical of the mergers in the oil and natural gas industry that have led to the mega-producers, such as ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, BP-Amoco and ConocoPhillips.

“I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition,” he said. More than 2,600 mergers have occurred in the domestic petroleum industry since the 1990s, including transactions involving the largest oil and gas companies in the nation, according to Specter.

Specter and five other members of the Senate Judiciary panel earlier this month introduced legislation that seeks to tame natural gas and crude oil prices by strengthening antitrust enforcement and bolstering competition in the energy industry (see Daily GPI, April 7). The bill would expose energy companies to prosecution under The Clayton Act if they withhold oil, natural gas or product supplies to drive up prices or create shortages in the market. The Clayton Act prohibits price discrimination, tying agreements and mergers and acquisitions that would impede competition.

In an effort to restrict further consolidation in the energy industry, the measure also calls for the attorney general and chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to study whether Section 7 of The Clayton Act should be toughened with respect to persons in all aspects of the oil, natural gas and products industries. Section 7 of The Clayton Act currently prohibits mergers and acquisitions where the effect “may be to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.”

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) signaled his support for a windfall profits tax as well. “We need a windfall profits tax because these profits have been absolutely obscene,” he told CNN’s “Late Edition” on Sunday.

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