Regular unleaded gas is sold for $4.99 per gallon at the West Broad Street Shell station in Stamford, Conn. Thursday, April 28, 2022. Gas prices at that particular station are noticeably higher than others in the region.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro is calling on members of the Senate to pass legislation that would provide consumers nationwide protection against what she and other lamakers say is price gouging by large oil companies.

The Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, which has already been approved by Congress, would give President Joe Biden the power to declare a national energy emergency, making it illegal to sell fuels for cars, planes, home heating oil, and propane at excessive and exploitative prices.

DeLauro highlighted the House passage of the legislation during a press conference Friday at Ansonia’s transfer station, where the city has a large gas storage tank. Her announcement came at the start of the long Memorial Day holiday weekend, which is traditionally viewed as the start of the summer travel season.

“Americans are facing sticker shock with fuel prices,” DeLauro said. “It is time we hold Big Oil accountable for price gouging, war profiteering, and artificially keeping prices high for their own benefit, all while posting record profits. People need a government that looks out for - not one that answers to the wealthiest and biggest corporations.”

The proposed legislation would be the first-ever federal law against price gouging, according to DeLauro. Under current federal law, a U.S. president can only declare an energy emergency after a natural disaster, she said.

If approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden, the bill would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the power to issue penalties against fuel wholesalers and retailers for price gouging during an energy emergency.

All financial penalties collected would go into the Consumer Relief Trust Fund, which would be used for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Weatherization Assistance Program to help further reduce costs for consumers.

DeLauro stressed that the small business people who operate independently-owned gas stations shouldn’t blamed for price gouging at the wholesale level or increased costs through the supply chain.

“They shouldn’t be taking the blame for a situation they didn’t cause,” she said.

DeLauro said large oil companies “are hoarding” drilling leases they hold on public land by not using them . Of the 26 million acres of public property the oil companies hold leases for, they only use 53 percent of that land, she said.

Rob Underwood, president of the Energy Marketers Of America, represents independent gas station owners across the country. During a teleconference with reporters hosted by the American Petroleum Institute on Thursday, Underwood said speculators in the futures market and high processing fees from credit card companies are responsible, at least in part, for the continued escalation of energy prices.

“Our members are hurting just as much as the average American consumer,” he said. “And the the credit card industry is making more than we are every time customers swipe their credit cards to pay for gas.”

The average national retail price for a gallon of gas over the past month has gone from just under $4.18 to $4.60 per gallon on Friday, according to GasBuddy, the fuel price tracking web site. In Connecticut, a gallon of gas as gone from about $4 per gallon to $4.67 per gallon on Friday.

DeLauro said she supports imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies, which was introduced by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and other lawmakers in March. The money that is collected from the companies would be returned to consumers in the form of a quarterly rebate, Blumenthal said at the time the legislation was introduced, adding the average Connecticut would receive $360 in annual rebates if the windfall profits tax became law.

Back in Connecticut, Attorney General William Tong said Friday that his office “has received over 100 gasoline price gouging complaints and we are actively investigating every single one.”

Frank Macchiarola. API’s senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, criticized the Biden Administration's energy policy saying the possibility of this country “turning away from fossil fuels has had a chilling effect on investors and policymakers .”

“The price of the commodity is very high, as is the spread between the price of crude oil and the price of refining it,” Macchiarola said. “Congress and the Administration have offered no ideas about correcting the supply imbalance. Policy and legal uncertainty is complicating the market and its essential that the Administration change its course.”

The war between Russia and Ukraine “has led to a historic reshuffling in the world oil market,” he said.

Other factors in the surge in fuel prices in a pent up demand for travel coming out of the pandemic, he said, as production and labor shortages.

Luther Turmelle covers business for the New Haven Register and Hearst Connecticut Media as well as the towns of Cheshire and Wallingford. He specializes in covering the utility and energy beats. A graduate of Boston University, Turmelle has held multiple leadership roles in the Society of Professional Journalist, including two terms serving on the organization's national Board of Directors.