[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2869 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2869

  To require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to take certain 
 actions to prevent the manipulation of energy markets, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 15, 2009

Mr. DeFazio (for himself and Mr. Welch) introduced the following bill; 
           which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to take certain 
 actions to prevent the manipulation of energy markets, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Energy Market Manipulation 
Prevention Act''.

SEC. 2. ENERGY MARKET MANIPULATION PREVENTION.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) in 1974, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission 
        (referred to in this Act as the ``Commission'') was established 
        as an independent agency with a mandate--
                    (A) to enforce and administer the Commodity 
                Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1 et seq.);
                    (B) to ensure market integrity;
                    (C) to protect market users from fraud and abusive 
                trading practices; and
                    (D) to prevent and prosecute manipulation of the 
                price of any covered commodity in interstate commerce;
            (2) Congress has given the Commission authority under the 
        Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 1 et seq.) to take necessary 
        actions to address market emergencies;
            (3) the Commission may use the emergency authority of the 
        Commission with respect to any major market disturbance that 
        prevents the market from accurately reflecting the forces of 
        supply and demand for a covered commodity;
            (4) in section 4a(a) of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 
        U.S.C. 6a(a)), Congress has declared that excessive speculation 
        imposes an undue and unnecessary burden on interstate commerce;
            (5) in May 2009, crude oil inventories in the United States 
        were at the highest level of crude oil inventories on record;
            (6) in May 2009, demand for oil in the United States 
        dropped to the lowest level of demand in more than a decade;
            (7) the national average price of a gallon of gasoline has 
        jumped from $1.64 per gallon in late December of 2008 to over 
        $2.61 per gallon as of June 8, 2009;
            (8) crude oil prices have increased by over 70 percent 
        since the middle of January 2009; and
            (9) in May 2009, the International Energy Agency predicted 
        that global demand for oil will decrease in 2009 to the lowest 
        level of demand since 1981.
    (b) Duties of Commission.--The Commission shall use the authority 
of the Commission, including the emergency authority of the 
Commission--
            (1) to curb immediately the role of excessive speculation 
        in any contract market--
                    (A) that is within the jurisdiction and control of 
                the Commission; and
                    (B) on or through which energy futures or swaps are 
                traded;
            (2) to eliminate excessive speculation, price distortion, 
        sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in 
        prices, or other unlawful activity that causes major market 
        disturbances that prevent the market from accurately reflecting 
        the forces of supply and demand for energy commodities;
            (3) to classify immediately each bank holding company that 
        engages in energy futures trading as a noncommercial 
        participant, and subject the bank holding company to strict 
        position limits;
            (4) to require immediately that each hedge fund engaged in 
        the trading of energy futures for the hedge fund, or on behalf 
        of a client of the hedge fund--
                    (A) to register with the Commission as a 
                noncommercial participant; and
                    (B) to be subject to strict speculation limits;
            (5) to eliminate conflicts of interest that may arise in 
        situations during which 1 entity owns or controls a unit that 
        is--
                    (A) designed to predict the future price of oil;
                    (B) engaged in the operations of oil assets, 
                including pipelines and storage facilities; and
                    (C) engaged in the buying or selling of energy 
                derivatives for the unit, or on behalf of a client of 
                the unit; and
            (6) to revoke immediately each staff no-action letter that 
        covers a foreign board of trade that has established trading 
        terminals in the United States for the purpose of trading 
        United States commodities to United States investors.
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