U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris announced his resignation this week, saying he will step down mid-year as head of the agency in charge of enforcing antitrust and consumer-protection laws.

Muris did not say why he’s departing, but in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said he would return to the law faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.

The FTC says the Bush administration intends to nominate Deborah Majoras as Muris' replacement. As a deputy assistant attorney general with the U.S. Department of Justice, Majoras oversaw the department's prosecution of Microsoft Corp. for antitrust abuses. She left the Justice Department last year for a position with law firm Jones Day's Washington, DC, practice.

Meanwhile, speaking in the Senate May 19, Ron Wyden, D-OR, said the FTC for years had been “sitting on its hands” over the issue of rising fuel prices and possible antitrust activity by oil companies. He said he intended to place a hold on Majoras’ confirmation because the nominee at a recent meeting earlier this week could not name a reason to investigate allegations of fuel price gouging and other abuses.

In a related issue, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, met with Majoras to press Boxer’s case for an investigation of Shell Oil Co. over its plans to shut down a refinery in Bakersfield, CA. The 70,000-barrel-per-day refinery produces 2 percent of the state's gasoline and an even higher percentage of the state’s diesel fuel – enough that Boxer and other officials fear its closure will send the state's skyrocketing fuel prices even higher.