NACS 2004-05 NACS Chairman Bill Douglass testifies before Congress, communicating retailer pain with high gasoline prices and offers solutions to address the problem.
Congress should focus on two elements that can have a lasting, positive impact on gasoline market conditions: increase oil supplies and enact H.R. 5546, said NACS 2004-05 Chairman Bill Douglass, CEO of Douglass Distributing Co., in testimony before Congress on May 7, 2008.
“If substantial inventories of additional crude oil were brought onto the market, basic economics tells us this would have a deflationary effect on crude oil prices. But perhaps even more importantly, such an increase in oil supply would send a signal to the non-commercial market traders,” Douglass told the House Judiciary Committee’s Anti-Trust Task Force in the Hearing to Examine the Consumer Effects of Rising Gas Prices.
“With additional supplies, it is conceivable that non-commercial investors would begin to transfer their speculative capital away from the crude oil commodities market and invest in markets with more favorable long-term economics,” said Douglass.
Douglass also urged Congress to enact H.R. 5546, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, which would give retailers the ability to negotiate with Visa and MasterCard.“
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