Obama calls for closing "Enron loophole"

[kristopher]

Obama calls for closing 'Enron loophole'
Posted: Sunday, June 22, 2008 3:24 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: 2008, Economy, Obama

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
The debate over how to bring down energy prices has occupied the center of the political stage in recent days, as drivers across the nation face sky-high gas prices, which in turn are driving up costs of food and other goods. Obama campaign's said today that he plans to ease the impact of rising gas prices by cracking down on excessive energy speculation through closing the so-called “Enron Loophole.”

On the 25-minute call were New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, economic policy director Jason Furman, and energy adviser Elgie Holstein, who was chief of staff at the Department of Energy during the Clinton Administration. The overall theme was a common one -- that McCain is out of touch with the concerns of working people and more in touch with those of big business. Today, they applied that argument to the issue of energy policy.

"What we’re talking about today is one very important part of Barack Obama’s overall plan, and it’s an overall plan that John McCain disagrees with. In almost every instance, he sides with oil companies and Barack Obama sides with consumers,” Furman said...
The “Enron Loophole” -- so named because it was added at Enron’s behest -- has kept the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from fully overseeing the oil futures market and investigating cases where excessive speculation may be driving up oil prices, the campaign explained in a policy paper. Obama would close the loophole by requiring that US energy futures trade on regulated exchanges. His plan also calls for legislation that would direct the CFTC to investigate whether further regulation is needed to end excessive speculation in US commodities markets, including higher margin requirements and position limits for institutional investors.

Obama would aim to ensure that US energy futures cannot be traded on unregulated offshore exchanges and would seek to work with our other countries to establish regulations to avoid excessive speculation in commodities futures markets. He would also call on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate market manipulation, including in the oil futures markets and ask the Justice Department to investigate whether energy traders have been engaged in illegal activities that have helped drive up oil and food prices.

Corzine said high oil prices were partly ...

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/22/1161113.aspx

[whistle]

1. Reverse every legislation BushCo passed in the last seven and a half years

...none of it has worked for the betterment of the country