I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2596 

To prohibit natural gas price gouging after a disaster, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 13, 2023 

Mr. HARDER of California introduced the following bill; which was referred 

to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To prohibit natural gas price gouging after a disaster, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop PG&E Price 

5 Gouging During Emergencies Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON UNCONSCIONABLE PRICING OF 

7 NATURAL GAS DURING A MAJOR DISASTER 

8 DECLARATION. 

9 For the duration of a major disaster declared under 

10 section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 

11 Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170), and for 1 


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1 year after the end of such major disaster, it shall be un2 lawful for any utility company to charge a rate for the 

3 sale of natural gas, at wholesale or at retail, in any county 

4 to which the declaration applies that, as determined by 

5 the Federal Trade Commission, in collaboration with the 

6 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission— 

7 (1) is unconscionably excessive; and 

8 (2) indicates that the utility company is taking 

9 unfair advantage of the circumstances related to the 

10 declaration of a major disaster to increase prices un11 reasonably. 

12 SEC. 3. ENFORCEMENT BY THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMIS13 SION. 

14 (a) ENFORCEMENT BY FTC.—A violation of section 

15 2 shall be treated as a violation of a rule defining an un16 fair or deceptive act or practice prescribed under section 

17 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 

18 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). The Federal Trade Commission 

19 shall enforce a violation of section 2 in the same manner, 

20 by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction as 

21 though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal 

22 Trade Commission Act were incorporated into and made 

23 a part of this Act. In enforcing section 2 of this Act, the 

24 Commission shall give priority to enforcement actions con25 cerning utility companies with total United States wholeVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Apr 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2596.IH H2596

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1 sale or retail sales of natural gas in excess of 

2 $2,000,000,000 per year. 

3 (b) CIVIL PENALTIES.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding the pen5 alties set forth under the Federal Trade Commission 

6 Act, any utility company that knowingly violates sec7 tion 2 shall be subject to— 

8 (A) a civil penalty of not more than 3 

9 times the amount of profits gained by such util10 ity company through such violation; or 

11 (B) a civil penalty of not more than 

12 $100,000,000 total. 

13 (2) METHOD.—The penalties under paragraph 

14 (1) shall be obtained in the same manner as civil 

15 penalties obtained under section 5 of the Federal 

16 Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45). 

17 (3) MULTIPLE OFFENSES; MITIGATING FAC18 TORS.—In assessing the penalty provided by para19 graph (1)— 

20 (A) each day of a continuing violation shall 

21 be considered a separate violation; and 

22 (B) the court shall take into consideration, 

23 among other factors, the seriousness of the vio24 lation and the efforts of the utility company 


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1 committing the violation to remedy the harm 

2 caused by the violation in a timely manner. 

3 SEC. 4. CRIMINAL PENALTIES. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any penalty appli5 cable under section 3, any utility company that violates 

6 section 2 shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, 

7 in an amount not to exceed $500,000,000. 

8 (b) ENFORCEMENT.—The criminal penalty provided 

9 by subsection (a) may be imposed only pursuant to a 

10 criminal action brought by the Attorney General. 

11 SEC. 5. ENFORCEMENT AT RETAIL LEVEL BY STATE ATTOR12 NEYS GENERAL. 

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—An attorney general of a State, 

14 as parens patriae, may bring a civil action on behalf of 

15 its residents in an appropriate district court of the United 

16 States to enforce the provisions of section 2 of this Act, 

17 or to impose the civil penalties authorized by section 

18 3(b)(1)(B), whenever the attorney general of the State has 

19 reason to believe that the interests of the residents of the 

20 State have been or are being threatened or adversely af21 fected by a violation of this Act, involving a retail sale. 

22 (b) NOTICE.—The attorney general of a State shall 

23 serve written notice to the Federal Trade Commission of 

24 any civil action under subsection (a) prior to initiating 

25 such civil action. The notice shall include a copy of the 


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1 complaint to be filed to initiate such civil action, except 

2 that if it is not feasible for the State to provide such prior 

3 notice, the State shall provide such notice immediately 

4 upon instituting such civil action. 

5 (c) LIMITATION ON STATE ACTION WHILE FEDERAL

6 ACTION IS PENDING.—If the Federal Trade Commission 

7 or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has initi8 ated a civil action or an administrative action for violation 

9 of this Act, no State attorney general, or official or agency 

10 of a State, may bring an action under this section during 

11 the pendency of that action against any defendant named 

12 in the complaint of the Federal Trade Commission or the 

13 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for any violation 

14 of this Act alleged in the complaint. 

15 (d) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.— 

16 (1) CIVIL ACTION.—For purposes of bringing 

17 any civil action under subsection (a), nothing in this 

18 section shall be construed to prevent the attorney 

19 general of a State from exercising the powers con20 ferred on the attorney general by the laws of such 

21 State to conduct investigations, administer oaths or 

22 affirmations, or compel the attendance of witnesses 

23 or the production of documentary and other evi24 dence. 


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1 (2) ENFORCEMENT OF STATE LAW.—Nothing 

2 in this section shall be construed to prohibit an au3 thorized State official from proceeding in State court 

4 to enforce a civil or criminal statute of such State. 

5 SEC. 6. EFFECT ON OTHER LAWS. 

6 (a) OTHER AUTHORITY OF FEDERAL TRADE COM7 MISSION.—Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit 

8 or affect in any way the Federal Trade Commission’s au9 thority to bring enforcement actions or take any other 

10 measure under the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 

11 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) or any other provision of law. 

12 (b) STATE LAW.—Nothing in this Act preempts any 

13 State law. 

14 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 

15 In this Act: 

16 (1) NATURAL GAS.—The term ‘‘natural gas’’ 

17 has the meaning given that term in section 2 of the 

18 Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717a). 

19 (2) UTILITY COMPANY.—The term ‘‘utility com20 pany’’ means a gas utility company or a public-util21 ity company, as such terms are defined in section 

22 1262(7) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act 

23 of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16451). 

Æ 


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