Madam Speaker, it is with a sense of urgency and purpose that I am introducing the Energy Markets Anti-Manipulation and Integrity Restoration Act today.
With high fuel prices squeezing our constituents and burdening our economy, we in Congress have a responsibility to act. While individual Members of Congress clearly disagree over whether we will ever really be able to drill our way out of this challenge — or whether next generation alternatives and improved energy efficiency offer the most promising way forward ---- there is one principle on which we should all agree: our energy markets should serve the legitimate needs of energy consumers and producers, not enrich a narrow group of "hot money" speculators at the public’s expense. With hedge fund and institutional interest in commodities exploding nearly twenty-fold over the past five years, and the price of oil recently spiking by over $11 in a single day, it is clear that today’s energy prices reflect something more than the fundamental laws of supply and demand.
The Energy Markets Anti-Manipulation and Integrity Restoration Act would once and for all close the so-called Enron loophole by adding energy to the list of commodities that cannot be traded on deregulated, exempt commercial markets. Additionally, this focused legislation would close the Foreign Board of Trade (FBOT) loophole currently enabling unregulated energy futures trading on American soil by forbidding an exchange from being deemed an unregulated foreign entity if its trading affiliate or trading infrastructure is in the U.S. and it trades a U.S.-delivered energy contract that significantly affects price discovery in the markets. If enacted into law, these two common-sense steps would go a long way towards eliminating market manipulation and excessive speculation currently distorting today’s energy marketplace.
I am especially pleased to be offering this timely legislation today with my colleagues Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Rep. Betty Sutton, Rep. Robert Wexler, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Rep. Peter Welch, Rep. Brian Higgins, Rep. Bill Delahunt and Rep. Raúl Grijalva – and I look forward to working with them and the rest of the House to address this important issue on behalf of our constituents in very short order.