State Attorney General Henry McMaster won't investigate whether the recent spike in gasoline prices is related to gouging, despite a resolution adopted by the state House of Representatives last week calling for him to do so, his spokesman said Monday.

He's holding out for the Legislature to adopt a law that would give him more authority to prosecute such cases, spokesman Trey Walker said.

McMaster led a probe into allegations of gas price gouging in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last year, finding gas prices rising as high as $4.79 a gallon.

As a result, seven retailers in the Upstate agreed to donate $500 each to the American Red Cross. No charges were filed and the retailers acknowledged no wrongdoing in the settlement of the probe.

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The bill in question makes violations punishable by fines of up to $1,000 or imprisonment of up to 30 days.

A resolution adopted last Thursday was the second the House has passed calling for McMaster "to investigate whether or not violations of law have occurred" in the recent rise in prices at the pumps.

The ball is in the Senate's court, Walker said.

"He has completed the investigation, which recommended that the South Carolina General Assembly pass a strong price gouging law -- which has passed the House and has stalled in the South Carolina Senate," Walker said.

The bill would give the attorney general the authority to determine what constitutes "an abnormal disruption of the market" and makes it illegal "to rent or sell a commodity at an unconscionable price..." during such a declaration.

The chairman of a Senate subcommittee where the bill has been languishing since February said Monday that he expects the bill to move forward this week.

"I don't anticipate any objections to it," said Sen. Chauncey Gregory, R-Lancaster. "I think it will be passed out of the full Judiciary Committee (today) and then it will be taken up by the full Senate."

He blamed the lag time on the Senate's focus on property tax relief.

The Senate on April 27 adopted a resolution urging President Bush and the U.S. Congress "to investigate the excessive profits of oil companies..."