Gas Prices & the "Enron Loophole" (where deregulated speculators were unleashed)...

[Indi Guy]

Closing Enron loophole will help reduce energy prices
BY CAROLYN McCARTHY AND KEVIN ROONEY | Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) served on the House Farm Bill Conference Committee. Kevin Rooney is chief executive of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island.
June 6, 2008

Last month, Congress approved legislation that significantly increased the authority of federal regulators to crack down on financial speculators, who many believe have been driving the price of oil to historic highs with disturbing regularity.

This bill will largely close the so-called Enron loophole - a legal wrinkle created in 2000 that exempted many energy speculators from regulation, which Enron Corp. capitalized on. And that should help to stabilize, and ultimately reduce, energy prices.

But clearly, a lot more needs to be done to rein in out-of-control energy prices. For one thing, speculators still have the ability to use offshore-based exchanges to manipulate the market. These foreign boards of trade, which operate here in the United States, still remain largely out of reach of American regulators, and Congress needs to address this.
...

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opmcc065715352jun06,0,50528.story

[Historic NY]

1. They have only been saying this for 8 years...........

still our congress does squat. Kick the foreign trade boards out.

[tanyev]

2. Kick.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Time for some old cowboy philosophy.

Hang them rustlers high! And let them dance a jig in the air.