(Recasts; adds Lieberman, Bustamante)
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Democrats criticized record high U.S. gasoline prices on Friday and demanded that the Bush administration investigate if big oil companies were gouging consumers at the pump.
Democratic Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts sent a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Friday asking for a probe into the skyrocketing of motor fuel costs that occurred just as many Americans took to the roads for a final summer holiday. Markey is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
"If the oil industry is going to tip the driving public upside down to shake their vacation money out of their pockets, then it is time to tip the industry upside down and shake out a few answers," Markey said Friday at a rally at a gas station in Lexington, Massachusetts, near Boston.
Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman also asked the Energy Department for an immediate probe into the causes for the price spike just ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend and its impact on consumers.
"It is imperative that this investigation determine both the underlying causes for these price increases, and whether or not industry participants are gouging consumers," Lieberman said in a letter to Abraham.
An Energy Department spokesman said he had not seen the letter from either lawmaker, but they would probably be forwarded to the Federal Trade Commission, which handles such matters.
High gasoline prices have become an issue, too, in the California governor recall and election. California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who is the leading Democratic candidate for governor, has called for regulating the state's gasoline prices, which are among the highest in the nation.
The national retail average price for gasoline jumped 12 cents over the last week to a record $1.75 a gallon on Monday, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Motorists in many parts of the country are paying over $2 a gallon for gasoline.
In the Washington, D.C. area, drivers lined up Friday morning at several gasoline stations to take advantage of a promotion by local radio station 107.3 FM and buy gasoline for $1.07 a gallon.
Oil companies blame the price jump, in part, on the disruption in fuel supplies after several oil refineries shut down from the recent power blackout in the Northeast.
Lieberman said gasoline prices in some states may have spiked because of the blackout, but that does not explain why pump costs have jumped throughout the country.
Fuel costs are also up due to high crude oil prices and strong gasoline demand, which has averaged a record 9.4 million barrels a day over the last four-week period, the EIA said.
The American Automobile Association expects 28.2 million people to drive 50 miles or more this Labor Day weekend, up 2.2 percent from last year and the most since 1995.
American gasoline supplies are at their lowest level since Nov. 2000.
High pump prices aren't expected to last much longer, and should begin dropping in the next few weeks, according to EIA. "With gasoline demand typically falling substantially after Labor Day, and with resolutions to some of the supply problems already underway, it is likely that prices should fall substantially beginning sometime in September," it said.
Although U.S. retail gasoline prices hit a record, they remain far below what motorists pay in most other industrialized nations.