Political Quotes

“I have also called on President Obama to release some of the oil stored in our Nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. History has shown that releasing some of this oil into the market can have a short-term impact on prices. When President George H.W. Bush announced he was authorizing a drawdown in 1991, oil prices fell by nearly $10 per barrel the next day. There is not much we can do to reduce oil prices in the near term, but this action could bring some relief to American consumers. We must also clamp down on excessive oil speculation. I joined 47 of my colleagues in opposing a Republican proposal to cut one-third of the funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the cop on the beat, for improper speculation. The Commission is responsible for cracking down on illegal speculative activities that artificially inflate the price of oil. We need to make sure Wall Street is not unfairly gouging and hurting middle-class families. We should not be taking this cop off that beat. I am joining Senators Cantwell and Wyden in sending a letter calling on the Commission to impose position limits on oil trading that were required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill. This congressionally imposed deadline has already passed, and the Commission should act swiftly to protect consumers by helping to restrain speculation. I am glad President Obama has directed an investigation into the role of speculation in our current gas prices.…”