Democrats on the Senate Commerce Committee have urged the committee to launch a probe into allegations that an oil company ordered huge increases in gasoline prices after Hurricane Katrina.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA, said in a statement that the Mid-Atlantic chapter of AAA received numerous complaints from ExxonMobil station owners in the Washington, DC, metro area that the oil company was forcing them to raise prices.

“Congress has a responsibility to get to the bottom of these claims, and we need to see whether these practices are widespread,” Cantwell said.

Cantwell was among a group of Democratic senators who sent a letter to Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-AK, demanding that Congress start an investigation to determine whether ExxonMobil and other oil companies had engaged in price gouging.

However, a spokesman for the Arkansas Republican said Stevens “is not going to conduct an investigation at this time.”

Reuters reported the oil companies denied any wrongdoing, claiming that simple supply and demand was to blame for the price increases.

Other senators who signed the letter were Byron Dorgan, D-ND, John Kerry, D-MA, Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, Barbara Boxer, D-CA, Bill Nelson, D-FL, and Jay Rockefeller, D-WV.

In a related story, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon announced Wednesday, Sept. 28, that he has taken legal action against 10 gas stations in southern Missouri in relation to high prices in the wake of Katrina.

The Associated Press reported that Nixon is suing one gas station in Springfield, MO, claiming the profit margin on that station increased more than 400 percent after Katrina. The remaining nine stations have agreed to a total of $6,750 in settlements.