Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my colleague the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Mr. Peterson, for his leadership on this, along with our colleagues Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Stupak, Mr. Etheridge, Mr. Larsen and many others who have moved quickly to address the problems of rampant speculation in the energy futures market.
The title of this legislation is the Energy Markets Emergency Act. And what it does is direct the Commodities Future Trading Commission, the CTFC, to invoke its emergency powers to crack down on extreme speculation in the futures markets. We all know that families across this country are facing emergencies in their family budgets and it’s time that the CFTC stepped forward and treated this like the emergency that it is. Part of the rise in prices is of course due to supply and demand and the fact that China and India are boosting demand. That’s part of it. But the other part of it is in fact the increase in speculation, extreme speculation. There’s been testimony before this Congress - in front of the Committee, Subcommittee, Mr. Stupak, and the Senate side and House side - by Professor Greenburger from University of Maryland School of Law and many others that makes it absolutely clear that a component of the increase in price does not have to do with solely with supply and demand.
The CFTC has the authority under the statute to invoke its emergency powers if market prices do not adequately reflect the forces of supply and demand. And I must say, Mr. Goodlatte, it has not done that. This legislation does not say to the CTFC, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.” The fact of the matter is they haven’t made that finding. They have not invoked their emergency powers. And there’s some permanent issues we have to come back and fix. We have to finally close the Enron loophole. We need to deal with what’s called the London loophole. We need to do some things on a permanent basis. But if they invoke their emergency powers, they will have the authority on a temporary emergency basis – I will not yield – they will have the authority to deal with those issues and close those loopholes on an emergency basis and they have not done that.
If they access and invoke these powers, they can put new position limits on. They can require better margin requirements. They can even suspend tradings in certain funds. So what this does is say to them, “Use the powers you have. Do not sit on your hands and do not stand by and refuse to enact your emergency powers.” Because while they have taken certain steps, they have not made the finding that this bill essentially says, which is that speculation is part of the problem. No one says it’s all of the problem, but it is a part of the problem, and they therefore have the authority under existing law to invoke the emergency powers and it opens up a whole set of new tools that they are not using.
On this emergency basis they can do everything necessary to address the problems of the Enron loophole. And they can do everything necessary to deal with the London loophole. They are not doing it today. We are directing them to treat this as the emergency it is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.