Washington, D.C. — With gasoline prices in Iowa averaging more than a dollar a gallon higher than a year ago, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is calling on President Joe Biden to challenge OPEC in international court.
Grassley, a Republican, says the president’s energy policies discourage domestic production, while Biden “resorted to pleading” with OPEC to ramp up production, only to be turned down.
Grassley is calling on the president to support his bipartisan No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels, or NOPEC, Act, which he’s reintroduced. Grassley says Biden backed the original bill some 21 years ago when he was still a senator.
Grassley is urging the administration to support the bill to hold the cartel accountable for its anticompetitive behavior that elevates global oil prices. He says NOPEC would provide the Department of Justice with an effective tool to ensure American consumers are “no longer beholden to artificially inflated gas prices.”
According to Triple-A, gas prices in Iowa are averaging three-13 a gallon, compared to a dollar-97 a year ago. An official with the motor club in Iowa notes, prices a year ago were exceptionally low due to drastically-reduced travel levels caused by the pandemic — and lower demand brought lower prices.
