Blumenthal Supports Legislation to End Oil Speculation

***EDITOR’S NOTE: FOOTAGE OF PRESS CONFERENCE AVAILABLE ON PATHFIRE DMG AND FTP*** 

Slug: [Senator Blumenthal Supports Legislation to End Oil Speculation] 

1.      On the left side of the Pathfire/DMG main page, click on Video News Feed (Master VNF Locator).

2.      From the expanded list, double-click on VNF Provider B.

3.      Click the U.S. Senate tab.

4.      Locate and click (CT1) CT, Blumenthal.  The link to the video will be displayed in the pane on the right.

5.      For more instructions, please see the attached PDF. 

FTP: http://gp1d.senate.gov/sdmc/Blumenthal/061511_BLUMENTHAL_1_FTP.MPG

Audio: http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/blumenthal/061511_BLUMENTHAL.mp3

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(Washington, DC) – Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today joined Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Al Franken (D-MN) to introduce the End Excessive Oil Speculation Act Now Act to curb excessive oil speculation and bring down rising gas prices.

“Anybody who travels around the country, in Connecticut or elsewhere, knows that these price increases have been absolutely crushing for American families, working people, and the economy,” said Blumenthal. “If we’re serious about creating jobs and restoring economic growth in the United States, we need to attack increasing prices which are the result of gambling and gaming by speculators.”

The End Excessive Oil Speculation Act Now Act mandates the Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to take the following immediate actions to eliminate excessive oil speculation:

·         Establish speculative oil position limits equal to the position accountability levels that have been in place at the New York Mercantile Exchange since 2001. These limits are much stricter than the limits proposed by the CFTC in January.

·         Establish margin requirements of 25 percent on speculative oil trading to require investors to back their bets with real capital. 

·         Require each bank holding company, investment bank, or hedge fund engaged in proprietary oil trading to be classified as speculators; and

·         Take any other action the Chairman of the Commission determines is necessary to eliminate excessive speculation in order to ensure that the price of crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and heating oil accurately reflects the fundamentals of supply and demand.

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