Eight senators have endorsed a bill that would give federal antitrust agencies authority to file suit in U.S. courts against members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for alleged price gouging, Gannett News Service reported.

Record high fuel prices are caused by high crude oil prices, which OPEC has brought about by limiting supplies, said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-OH.

“If OPEC were a group of international oil companies getting together to set prices and cut output, it could be prosecuted under U.S. antitrust law,” he said at a Senate hearing on the bill April 7. “But to this day, OPEC continues to receive special treatment under U.S. antitrust law.”

Suing OPEC is one option Congress is considering to reduce prices. Other approaches include a stalled Senate energy bill and possible investigations by the Federal Trade Commission of alleged price-fixing by domestic oil companies.

It remains unclear whether the United States could or would sue OPEC, a cartel made up mainly of foreign-government entities.

George Bermann, a professor at Columbia Law School, said no international or constitutional law would prevent the U.S. government from suing a foreign government for price fixing. Nations generally have sovereign immunity from lawsuits, he said.