Bush Feels Heat On Gas Prices

President Bush is facing mounting pressure to do something about the rising price of gas, CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports.

Over the weekend, Mr. Bush repeated his State of the Union promise to wean America from dependence on oil.

"We're addicted and it's harmful for the economy and it's harmful for our national security, and we've got to do something about it in this country," the president said Saturday in California.

But as gas prices continue rising daily, some members of Congress are calling for the president to intervene directly and for an immediate investigation into gas price gouging.

Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said a windfall profits tax, along with measures to stem concentration of market power among a few select oil companies, could offer eventual relief to consumers hurting at the gas pump.

"I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition," Specter, R-Pa., said Sunday.

"They get together, reduce the supply of oil, and that drives up prices," he said. "In the short run, it's hard to deal with it for tomorrow. But I think windfall profits, eliminating the antitrust exemption, considering the excessive concentration of power are all items we ought to be addressing."

Specter is backing legislation that would strengthen antitrust laws on oil company mergers after his committee held a hearing last month examining the growing consolidation of the oil industry. The nation's largest oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., have denied their industry size has affected prices.

Last week, crude-oil prices hit record highs and average gasoline prices nationwide neared $3 a gallon – up an average of nearly a quarter per gallon in the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday. Self-serve regular averaged $2.91 a gallon, up from $2.67 two weeks ago, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the nationwide Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will send a letter Monday to the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department seeking an immediate investigation into gas price gouging.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he believes gas prices "would come down within a matter of days" if President Bush told oil companies that he was going to support a windfall profits tax.

"But the president will not call the oil companies into his office because he's been too closely allied with those oil companies, and if he does it's going to be a window-dressing conversation," said Levin, who appeared with Specter on CNN's "Late Edition."