Sen. Ted Stevens, R-AK, announced Wednesday, Nov. 9, that he plans to draft legislation in 2006 that would give the federal government the authority to fight price gouging during emergencies.

Stevens, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, made the announcement following a joint hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources and Commerce committees on high fuel prices and record oil company profits.

Congressional Quarterly reported Stevens dismissed the eight other price-gouging bills that have been drafted by various congressional members as “just political statements” aimed at getting media attention.

Stevens did not give a specific date for his draft of the bill, but said it would happen sometime next year because the end of this year's legislative session is too close at hand for anything to be done now.

Stevens' statements also came in the wake of testimony from the heads of five major oil companies before a congressional committee on Nov. 9. During that hearing, the executives defended their record profits, claiming that there was no wrongdoing and that high oil prices are nothing more than the market responding to the laws of supply and demand.