News from U.S. Sen. Blumenthal

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called on the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to crack down on the improper speculation and manipulation of gasoline prices. In two different letters sent to the CFTC and Holder, Blumenthal asked for stringent and immediate enforcement of legal prohibitions that would help stop these abuses. In his letter to the CFTC, Blumenthal asked the agency to enforce their newly adopted position limit rule – imposing limits on the size of speculative bets that can be made by investors on future prices of gasoline. Last May, Blumenthal and his colleagues called for the CFTC to adopt these position limits in order to prevent market participants from manipulating prices at the expense of American consumers. In his letter to Holder, Blumenthal asked the U.S. Attorney General to use new and existing legal tools to stop these abuses – in particular the Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group. Blumenthal’s work on the improper speculation and manipulation of gasoline prices includes previous requests to the Department of Justice. On April 21, 2011, Holder announced the formation of an Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group to focus specifically on fraud in the energy sector by monitoring oil and gas markets for potential violations of criminal or civil laws. The purpose of the working group was to safeguard consumers against unlawful harm. However, the working group was slow to release information about its investigations or conclusions. On March 18, 2012, Blumenthal sent another letter to Holder asking that he make use of the working group that had, at the time, been in existence for almost a year.