No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act information

The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC) was a U.S. Congressional bill, never enacted, known as H.R. 2264 (in 2007) and then as part of H.R. 6074 (in 2008). NOPEC was designed to remove the state immunity shield and to allow the international oil cartel, OPEC, and its national oil companies to be sued under U.S. antitrust law for anti-competitive attempts to limit the world's supply of petroleum and the consequent impact on oil prices. Despite popular sentiment against OPEC, legislative proposals to limit the organization's sovereign immunity have so far been unsuccessful. "Varied forms of a NOPEC bill have been introduced some 16 times since 2000, only to be vehemently resisted by the oil industry and its allied oil interests like the American Petroleum Institute and their legion of 'K' Street Lobbyists."^[1]

The NOPEC Act was initially sponsored and introduced by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-WI, in June 2000 (S. 2778). The bill had 9 bipartisan cosponsors, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT; Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA; Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA; and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-CT. That bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 21, 2000.^[2] NOPEC was reintroduced in the Senate by Sen. Kohl in every Congress until his retirement in 2013 and passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in Congress.

The identical text of the NOPEC bill was also introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan), in May 2007 and then as H.R. 6074 by Representative Steve Kagan (D-Wisconsin). In the U.S. House of Representatives, the 2007 bill had 12 bipartisan co-sponsors in the House, which included Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio).^[3][4][5] H.R. 2264 also had strong bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate.^[6][7] Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said: "It is long past time for this to become law."^[8] H.R. 2264 was passed by the House of Representatives in May 2007 as a stand-alone bill by a vote of 345–72.^[9] That same month, it also passed the Senate by a vote of 70-23 as part of its energy measure.^[10] As part of the Gas Price Relief Act, NOPEC (H.R. 6074) was then passed in the House of Representatives, in May 2008, by a vote of 324–84.^[5][11] May 2008.</ref>--> President George W. Bush reiterated his previous promise to veto the bill.^[12] Under a continued veto threat, a team of senators reintroduced the bill just a week before President Bush left office.^[13] However, NOPEC/H.R. 6074 did not then come to a final Senate vote. With continued bipartisan support, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) sponsored NOPEC in 2011, as H.R. 1346.^[14] NOPEC has not gone beyond its introduction subsequently.^[15]

NOPEC has been the Congressional effort to address the issue that, under federal law, foreign governments cannot be sued for predatory pricing or failing to comply with federal antitrust laws. Thus, the purpose of the bill was to extend similar Sherman Antitrust consumer protection, so as to include protection against collusion and predatory pricing by foreign governments and international cartels, such as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).^[16]

As written and passed, H.R. 2264:

Amends the Sherman Act to declare it to be illegal and a violation of the Act for any foreign state or instrumentality thereof to act collectively or in combination with any other foreign state or any other person, whether by cartel or any other association or form of cooperation or joint action, to limit the production or distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product (petroleum), to set or maintain the price of petroleum, or to otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for petroleum, when such action has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price, or distribution of petroleum in the United States.

It also summarizes enforcement parameters as follows:

Denies a foreign state engaged in such conduct sovereign immunity from the jurisdiction or judgments of U.S. courts in any action brought to enforce this Act. States that no U.S. court shall decline, based on the act of state doctrine, to make a determination on the merits in an action brought under this Act. Authorizes the Attorney General to bring an action in U.S. district court to enforce this Act. Makes an exception to the jurisdictional immunity of a foreign state in an action brought under this Act.^[17]