There are other Senate bills out there trying to stop energy speculation.

[sinkingfeeling]

http://billnelson.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?id=299206&

<snip>

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has filed legislation to ban unregulated speculative trading of oil futures and other energy commodities as a way to curb the unchecked run-up in crude oil and gasoline prices that took off after Congress deregulated electronic trading of energy futures in late 2000.

He is working closely with Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, who pushed passage of the measure in the farm bill to close the Enron loophole. Levin and Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, have bills aimed at closing the so-called “London loophole” regarding the regulation of foreign boards of trade. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, is preparing a measure to better regulate energy swaps and index funds tied to energy prices. And Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, has said he is working on a proposal to ban large institutional investors from the commodity markets.

[whistle]

1. The Enron loophole...who voted for that in the first place?

[sinkingfeeling]

2. First introduced as HR5660 and S3282 in 2000, it became law like this..

http://www.star-telegram.com/ed_wallace/story/659081.html

Fast-forward to late 2000 and H.R. 5660, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, sponsored by Republican Congressman Thomas Ewing of Illinois. That bill went nowhere, even though Tom Delay’s wife Christine was then working for a Washington lobbying firm, Alexander Strategies – which Enron had paid $200,000 to push through legislation for permanent energy deregulation in these "dark" markets.

Six months later came Senate Bill 3283, also named the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. This time around the sponsor was Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, and now Phil Gramm was listed as one of the bill’s co-sponsors. Like it had in the House, this bill was destined to go nowhere until, late one night, it was attached as a rider to an 11,000-page appropriations bill – which was signed into law by President Clinton.

Now traders had an officially deregulated market for energy futures. Worse, that bill also deregulated many financial instruments – including the collateralized debt obligations that are at the center of today’s mortgage crisis, which may well cost us more than $1 trillion before it’s over.

Everybody was warned; that’s probably why this deregulation bill was stealthily inserted into that appropriations bill without a floor debate.

[whistle]

3. Son of a bitch!