Durbin Calls for Passage of NOPEC Act in the Lame Duck Session

SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today released the following statement regarding OPEC+’s decision to dramatically reduce oil production in alliance with Vladimir Putin:

“From unanswered questions about 9/11, the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the exporting of extremism, to dubious jailing of peaceful dissidents and conspiring with Vladimir Putin to punish the U.S. with higher oil prices, the Saudi royal family has never been a trustworthy ally of our nation. It’s time for our foreign policy to imagine a world without this alliance with these royal backstabbers.

“This May, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the NOPEC Act by a bipartisan vote of 17-4.  Given OPEC+’s decision to dramatically reduce oil production, it is time for the Senate to pass this important legislation in the lame duck session.”

The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Act would allow the federal government to take action against price fixing by OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and its partner nations.  It would explicitly authorize the Justice Department to bring lawsuits against oil cartel members for antitrust violations, and it would clarify that neither sovereign immunity nor the “Act of State” doctrine prevents a court from ruling on antitrust charges brought against foreign governments for engaging in illegal pricing, production, and distribution of petroleum products.

-30-