Our View — Klobuchar right to rattle oil cages
Tue, Jun 10 2008
Thumbs up to Sen. Amy Klobuchar for making some noise and rattling some cages with regard to exorbitant gas prices.
Klobuchar spoke at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week where witnesses testified undue speculation may be part of the reasons oil prices are being driven beyond their supply and demand fundamentals. Klobuchar called on the government regulators to step up their oversight and enforcement of these suspicious activities after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in an unprecedented move, said it was investigating oil futures trading.
Klobuchar urged the Bush administration to use its authority to raise margin requirements in oil trading and increase oversight of overseas commodity markets and to close the “Enron loophole” that allows electronic and energy futures to avoid federal oversight.
While it may be difficult to pass laws to keep energy prices down, Klobuchar knows enough to use her pulpit in the U.S. Senate to put some pressure on those who would artificially and illegally manipulate oil prices for profit.
