can we do this every night?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24761384#24761384
go Leahy!:
"I want to hear directly from these oil companies about causes of the rising price of oil on which Congress can act. This Committee unanimously approved Senator Kohl’s NOPEC legislation, which would put an end to artificial limits on supply by ensuring that the U.S. Government has the authority to prosecute OPEC members for collusive behavior. Seventy members of the Senate have voted for this legislation, as have 345 Members of the House. Yet this President threatened to veto it.
I would like to know what these oil executives think about applying principles of competition from our antitrust laws to the commercial activity of the oil producing states.
The members of OPEC meet regularly to agree on limits on the amount of oil they will produce. That is wrong, and it hurts Americans. If such a meeting took place in almost any other context, the participants would likely be arrested for an illegal conspiracy in restraint of trade.
Do they agree that we need to crack down on speculation and manipulation in the oil commodities market? Numerous experts have testified before this Committee and others that oil prices are moving higher as a result of speculators. Investors are betting up the price of oil, and consumers are paying the bill. Increasingly, this speculation takes place in over-the-counter trading, which avoids the oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, thanks to the Enron loophole.
That is an unjustified loophole, which Senator Feinstein and I, among others, have been actively trying to close. Keeping the CFTC blind to speculation and manipulation in the oil futures market is inexcusable. Last week, Congress passed the Farm Bill that would close this loophole. The President threatened to veto the legislation. I would like to know what these oil executives think about that."
