When Pioneer Natural Resources, the largest oil company in Texas, tried to merge with ExxonMobil, the Federal Trade Commission discovered evidence that Pioneer was illegally colluding with OPEC, the oil cartel that includes Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, to keep prices high.

US oil producers are explicitly prohibited by federal law from price fixing and taking actions restricting competition.

But Pioneer CEO and GOP mega-donor Scott Sheffield was caught red-handed coordinating production strategies in private messages to Oil Ministers in the Middle East, to keep prices artificially high. (see: Congress Urged to Tax Big Oil for Price Fixing and 'Issue Every American a Refund', Common Dreams, 5/7/2024)

In addition to the direct price increases at the gas pump, many of the higher prices we’ve faced, from groceries to food delivery, come back to the increased price of oil.

Higher prices are not, as we're sometimes told, simply the result of government spending or the market's invisible hand.

Real human hands are involved here, including CEOs who send texts to oil ministers about how they should work together to keep prices high.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has already made an example of Sheffield and Pioneer. Sheffield was barred from working for Exxon, and Exxon was banned from appointing top Pioneer executives for five years. It also referred the case to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.

The DOJ must pick this case up and investigate and prosecute any American oil executives caught illegally colluding to keep gas prices high!