WASHINGTON -- A federal price-gouging law aimed at gasoline retailers could be a useful tool, especially if South Carolina lawmakers do nothing to improve the state's own law targeting sharp price increases, the state's attorney general told congressional lawmakers Wednesday.

"We have had some experience with this issue of price gouging in South Carolina which has indicated the need to strengthen laws in our state, and we're working on that now," South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said.

He will ask the state legislature in January to add a provision that allows the attorney general to use the price-gouging law if the president or another governor declares an emergency or disaster that results in an abnormal disruption in South Carolina's gasoline supplies.

Under current law, the price-gouging act, which carries fines and possible jail time, takes effect only if South Carolina's governor or the president declares an emergency or disaster in the state. Because Gov. Mark Sanford did not declare an emergency when prices surged after Hurricane Katrina, McMaster used the state's civil laws to follow up on allegations of unusually high gasoline prices.

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Whether states or the federal government is more capable of tackling the issue depends on the circumstances, McMaster said.

"If the defendant is a big oil company, perhaps that should be a federal question," he said. "Often a big oil company is located outside the jurisdiction of a state." McMaster added that the federal government might be better equipped to pursue such cases.

McMaster and two other attorneys general, Peter C. Harvey of New Jersey and Terry Goddard of Arizona, said a federal price-gouging law should be compatible with and not override the laws in nearly 30 states.

The three attorneys general testified at a joint hearing by the Senate committees on Commerce, Science & Transportation and Energy and Natural Resources to look into possible price gouging after gasoline topped $3 a gallon in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The hearing's morning session was packed, as five of the nation's top-five oil executives defended their record third-quarter profits, including a nearly $10 billion gain by ExxonMobile, and denied they had engaged in gouging.