Maria Cantwell: “I rise this morning to make sure the American people know that Democrats want to make sure that oil markets are policed.…”

“I rise this morning to make sure the American people know that Democrats want to make sure that oil markets are policed. Democrats want to make sure the oil markets are not being manipulated, and Democrats are going to make sure the oil markets, in fact, are going to be policed by the Federal Government. Over the last several years, several energy companies, including Amaranth, Marathon Oil, and British Petroleum have been under investigation for the manipulation of petroleum and natural gas markets. As a result of that investigation, British Petroleum now must pay approximately $373 million for conspiring to corner the market and manipulate the price of propane carried through the Texas pipeline. In another example, in 2006, a manipulative scheme to game the natural gas market by the now defunct hedge fund Amaranth, cost consumers upwards of $9 billion. In July of last year, Marathon Oil agreed to pay $1 million in fines to the CFTC to settle charges that Marathon's petroleum subsidy had attempted to manipulate crude oil prices. So we have examples of natural gas and oil markets being manipulated, and Democrats want to make sure that oil markets are going to be policed. We want to make sure there is not manipulation of supply. We want to make sure there is not false reporting of information. We want to make sure there is not cornering of the market. We want to make sure there is not rogue trading.”