NEWS RELEASE
March 10, 2008
CONTACT: Judy Dugan, 310-392-0522, ext. 305, or Jamie Court, ext. 327
Daily Record Prices for Oil, Gasoline Hammer Consumers and U.S. Economy
Group Calls for Swift Action to Curb, Regulate Energy Speculators, ‘Today’s Enron Rogues’
Santa Monica, CA — Congress and President Bush must take joint
action against the speculators who have driven oil and gasoline prices
past all-time records, said OilWatchdog.org, a project of the
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. Gasoline prices nationally
are expected today to surpass last year’s record of $3.227, and
California, at $3.571 per gallon as calculated by AAA, is more than 7
cents a gallon over last year’s record.
"There is no shortage of gasoline, no shortage of crude oil,
no underlying market reason for these excruciating record prices," said
Judy Dugan, research director of OilWatchdog and the nonprofit,
nonpartisan FTCR. "Speculators and hedge funds, today’s Enron rogues,
are driving an economic disaster by pouring billions into bets on
continually rising prices."
Oil today spiked to more than $107.00 a barrel, though the
U.S. dollar stabilized in value against other currencies including the
Euro. A weak dollar, in any case, is not nearly reason enough for spot
oil prices to be more than double last year’s January low of just above
$51 a barrel, said OilWatchdog. Last March, as gasoline prices started
spiking to their previous record, oil was still under $60 a barrel. (Click here to see historical oil prices.)
"With gasoline prices averaging more than a penny-a-day
increase, prices of $4.00 a gallon are popping up across California and
other states can see their future in what is happening there," said
Dugan. "Yet President Bush said earlier this month he hadn’t even heard
about predictions of $4.00 gasoline, and Congress seems to be hiding
its head in the sand. Energy prices should also be atop the issues for
the presidential candidates, but the oil lobby’s clout suffocates even
that debate."
Either the White House or Congress should initiate hearings on
and investigations of unregulated energy trading markets, where
manipulation of large trades can drive up prices on all markets, said
OilWatchdog. A proposal to put some modest oversight and regulation on
U.S. trades in the unregulated markets passed the Senate last December
but it was folded into the federal farm bill, which is stuck in
unrelated disputes over the funding of farm subsidies.
"The electronic energy trading markets, including the
InterContinental Exchange, are exempt from all regulation because of
what’s called the ‘Enron Loophole’," said Dugan. "The same energy
bandits who nearly turned out the lights in California in 2000 pushed
aside federal regulation that could have spotted manipulation and
curbed this year’s disastrous price spike. Government is still asleep
at the wheel."
Oil refineries have also been cutting back production, which
spikes gasoline prices independent of oil prices. Families are running
up credit card debt just to buy gasoline and the economy is battered
from both sides by energy-caused inflation and recession, said FTCR.
The beneficiaries of this, aside from the speculators, are oil
companies and foreign oil producers reaping record profits, said FTCR.
FTCR and OilWatchdog call for:
– Swift action to close the Enron Loophole in commody trading
regulation. The measure that is stuck in the farm bill should be passed
again as a separate bill (S.2058 by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Carl
Levin) to help stop speculative pricing. (Click here to see more on Enron Loophole and farm bill amendment.)
– Senate approval of an alternative fuels bill funded by
withdrawing $1.8 billion a year in unjustified taxpayer subsidies to
oil companies. This measure, passed by the House last week, faces an
uncertain future in the Senate. A similar House measure was removed
from the federal energy bill by the Senate last year under pressure
from the oil lobby. (Click here to see text of HR 5351.)
Statements of intent by the presidential candidates. Today’s
presidential candidates must do more than make disapproving noises
about today’s energy crisis, said OilWatchdog. They must let voters
know how they plan to keep the oil lobby out of the White House and
stop this from happening again.
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is a non-profit, non-partisan organization.
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