Democrats Push for Action on Gas Prices

With gas prices continuing to soar, seventy members of Congress on Monday pushed federal regulators to stop excessive oil speculation. The largely Democratic constituency urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to take immediate action, placing limits on traders in crude oil markets, and to do whatever is necessary to reduce prices at the pump.

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“It is one of your primary duties — indeed, perhaps your most important — to ensure that the prices Americans pay for gasoline and heating oil are fair, and that the markets in which prices are discovered operate free from fraud, abuse, and manipulation,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter organized by Senator Bernard Sanders, an Independent from Vermont.

The 2010 financial reform law ordered that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission place limits on contracts for crude oil, heating oil, and numerous other commodities. The agency approved restrictions in October, but they have yet to go into effect.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Lindsey Grossman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com