Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible anti-competitive practices by oil companies that might be limiting consumer access to renewable fuels, according to news reports.
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, the lawmakers told the Obama administration that the review was necessary to address “reports indicating that oil companies may be undermining efforts to distribute renewable fuels, including higher ethanol gasoline blends,” reports Christopher Doering in the Sioux Falls Business Journal. South Dakota, the country’s fifth-largest renewable fuels producer, generated more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol last year, the Journal article notes.
“We are writing to express concerns that oil companies are engaging in anticompetitive practices aimed at blocking market access for renewable fuels,” Grassley and Klobuchar said in the letter. “We urge you to investigate these allegations and, if true, whether they violate the nation’s antitrust laws.”
