Political Quotes

“Senator Cantwell and I were joined on May 11 by 15 other Senators who wrote to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to request that agency, which has a key role in consumer protection, take immediate action to impose position limits on crude oil futures. We asked that they would act by Monday, May 23. Position limits are limits on the number of contracts that a financial speculator can buy or sell at any given time. It is extremely important that consumers have this protection so we do not see these speculators increasingly dominate the market. As the Presiding Officer knows, we have a lot of folks who need gas to get to work and get to school. We have trucking companies that depend on affordable fuel. We have restaurants that need fuel. They are all getting clobbered today. Financial speculators who do not buy oil or consume oil are constantly pulling more of the oil out of the commodities market. What is so troubling about the approach of this key agency is they pretty much said they are not going to do anything soon. We have no sense of urgency. It is not a priority for them to try to tackle this issue. In fact, they are not even going to use their interim authority. They will not even use the interim authority they said they were going to use last year to protect the consumer at this crucial time.…”