Senator Demands Probe In Gas Price Rise

[sinkingfeeling]

http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2011/04/18/senator-demands-probe-in-gas-price-rise/

Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington released a breakdown of public data showing that excessive oil speculation costs Spokane, Wash., drivers $8 to $16 per tank. This “speculative premium” costs drivers up to 64 cents per gallon, Cantwell says.

The price consumers pay at the gasoline pump nationwide has risen sharply in recent weeks. Concern is mounting that the increasing amount consumers are forced to pay to fuel their vehicles could damage the U.S. economic recovery.

According to a new data set released Sunday by Cantwell and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Bart Chilton, Honda Civic drivers are paying $8.35 per gas tank due to excessive speculation; Ford Explorer drivers are paying $14.45 more per tank; and Ford F150 drivers, the most popular pick-up, are paying $16.69 more per fill up.

In the letter sent last month to the FTC, Cantwell noted that the price per barrel of oil over the past four years has varied drastically despite comparatively little change to the world’s supply and demand. She asserts that the FTC must be more proactive and aggressive in enforcing its market manipulation rule, noting the success the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has had in ferreting out bad actors in the electricity and natural gas markets using identical authority, and she details several questions she wants answered to shed light on any illegal activity that is behind the pain at the pump.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Perhaps congress needs to sit down and develope broad reaching

regulations to protect the American people and this country from the greedy bastards of wall street .

Instead of worrying about how to position themselves for the next election

[xchrom]

8. +1

[pacalo]

2. I knew before I opened this thread it could only be a Democrat looking out for us.

Thank you, Sen. Cantwell. :yourock:

[moondust]

3. Well yeah.

Oil speculation would seem to create artificial demand, while REAL demand is at the pumps. No?

[Skink]

4. what the Senators really need is a raise to offeset gas increases.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Demand a 75% tax on all oil and gas speculators.

[Obamanaut]

6. And the jobs, and the homeless, and the broken infrastructure, and the

multiple wars, and never making a budget for last year (which was due September 30, 2010).

Now that this is a popular item, something that everyone sees every day, a congressperson speaks up? What are the congresspeople doing about all this other stuff?

Never mind - they fixed the pesky problem last year of the increased volume during teevee commercials. I guess it's all good now.

[phantom power]

7. Gee, is that like how they demanded an investigation back in 2008?

Or how they Demand An Investigation every time fuel prices spike?