If one U.S. senator has a shot at reining in the sort of speculating that artificially inflates and drives up gas prices — to $4 and maybe even $5 a gallon by this summer — how about 13 U.S. senators?
We recently offered kudos to Sen. Amy Klobuchar for ripping off a letter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, urging immediate action on excessive price speculation in the oil markets. Turns out fellow Minnesota Sen. Al Franken signed the letter, too — along with 11 others.
Franken’s office reported that oil trades by speculators have jumped 35 percent since January amid civil unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. That has caused U.S. gas prices to soar by almost 40 percent.
“Minnesotans are already struggling in this economy and I’m working every angle I can to make sure gas prices don’t continue to go unchecked,” Franken said in a statement. “That’s why I’m urging regulators to exercise the authority they were given by the Wall Street Reform Act to clamp down on the damage oil speculators are causing and help stem the rise in prices at the pump.”
Anyone emptying their wallet just to fill their gas tanks can applaud the efforts of Franken, Klobuchar and others watching out for them, for doing what can be done. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission can respond by doing all it can to ease the motoring public’s pain at the pump.
— Duluth News Tribune
Comments (3)
Add commentCommodity Futures Trading Commission
Writing a letter is nice. It may even net you a headline or two.
Sen Klobuchar knowingly and willingly approved the nomination of a partner in Goldman Sachs to chair the CFTC. She wanted an individual who had a hand in making credit default swaps exempt from regulation to be in charge of regulating the $5 trillion commodity market.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm...
Senator Klobuchar is either a grandstanding liar or an incompetent legislator. I fear she may be both.
The question is will the GOP allow the regulators to do it?
This is the same Wall Street regulation bill that the GOP is trying to overturn. It protects consumers too much and makes the wolves have to settle for less greed.