[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1200 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1200

To require the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to 
    impose unilaterally position limits and margin requirements to 
   eliminate excessive oil speculation, and to take other actions to 
 ensure that the price of crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, 
  and heating oil accurately reflects the fundamentals of supply and 
  demand, to remain in effect until the date on which the Commission 
    establishes position limits to diminish, eliminate, or prevent 
 excessive speculation as required by title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall 
   Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 15, 2011

 Mr. Sanders (for himself, Mr. Nelson of Florida, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. 
  Merkley, Mr. Franken, and Mr. Whitehouse) introduced the following 
      bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                  Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to 
    impose unilaterally position limits and margin requirements to 
   eliminate excessive oil speculation, and to take other actions to 
 ensure that the price of crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, 
  and heating oil accurately reflects the fundamentals of supply and 
  demand, to remain in effect until the date on which the Commission 
    establishes position limits to diminish, eliminate, or prevent 
 excessive speculation as required by title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall 
   Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, 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 ``End Excessive Oil Speculation Now 
Act of 2011''.

SEC. 2. ELIMINATION OF EXCESSIVE OIL SPECULATION.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) the national average retail price for a gallon of 
        gasoline was $3.75 on June 8, 2011;
            (2) increased gasoline prices are causing severe economic 
        pain to the American people;
            (3) Congress has a responsibility--
                    (A) to ensure that gasoline prices at the pump 
                reflect the fundamentals of supply and demand; and
                    (B) to bring needed relief to consumers and 
                businesses of the United States at the gas pump;
            (4) there is mounting evidence that the spike in gasoline 
        prices has--
                    (A) little to do with the fundamentals of supply 
                and demand; and
                    (B) more to do with Wall Street speculators 
                increasing oil and gas prices in the energy futures and 
                swaps markets;
            (5) as of May 27, 2011--
                    (A) the supply of gasoline in the United States was 
                higher than it was 2 years ago; and
                    (B) the demand for gasoline was lower than it was 2 
                years ago when the national average for a gallon of 
                regular unleaded gasoline was $2.44 a gallon;
            (6) on May 12, 2011, Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief 
        Executive Officer, Rex Tillerson, told the Committee on Finance 
        of the Senate that oil should cost between $60 and $70 per 
        barrel, if the price of oil was based on supply and demand 
        fundamentals;
            (7) on March 21, 2011, Goldman Sachs warned clients that 
        speculators were boosting crude oil prices by as much as $27 a 
        barrel;
            (8) on March 25, 2011, Delta Airlines General Counsel, Ben 
        Hirst, said that the marginal cost of oil production is between 
        $60 to $70 a barrel;
            (9) in the summer of 2008, when gas prices rose to over $4 
        a gallon, Saudi Arabian government officials told the Federal 
        Government that speculators were responsible for increasing oil 
        prices by about $40 a barrel;
            (10) the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has the 
        authority to ensure that the price discovery for oil and 
        gasoline is based on the fundamentals of supply and demand, 
        rather than excessive speculation;
            (11) title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 
        Consumer Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 8301 et seq.) (and 
        amendments made by that Act) requires the Commission to 
        establish position limits ``to diminish, eliminate, or prevent 
        excessive speculation'' for trading in crude oil, gasoline, 
        heating oil and other physical commodity derivatives;
            (12) as of the date of introduction of this Act, the 
        Commission has failed to impose position limits to diminish, 
        eliminate, or prevent excessive oil and gasoline speculation as 
        required by law; and
            (13) the proposed position limits for derivatives that the 
        Commission included in the notice of proposed rulemaking 
        entitled ``Position Limits for Derivatives'' (76 Fed. Reg. 4752 
        (January 26, 2011)) are not scheduled to go into effect until 
        the first quarter of 2012, which would--
                    (A) occur on a date that is later than the 
                statutory deadline for the regulations; and
                    (B) fail to diminish, eliminate, or prevent 
                excessive speculation as required by the Dodd-Frank 
                Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Public 
                Law 111-203; 124 Stat. 1376).
    (b) Elimination of Excessive Oil Speculation.--
            (1) Definitions.--In this Act:
                    (A) Bona-fide hedge trading; bona-fide hedge 
                transaction.--The terms ``bona-fide hedge trading'' and 
                ``bona-fide hedge transaction'' means a transaction or 
                position that--
                            (i)(I) represents a substitute for a 
                        transaction made or to be made, or a position 
                        taken or to be taken, at a later time in a 
                        physical marketing channel;
                            (II) is economically appropriate for the 
                        reduction of risks in the conduct and 
                        management of a commercial enterprise; and
                            (III) arises from the potential change in 
                        the value of--
                                    (aa) assets that a person owns, 
                                produces, manufactures, processes, or 
                                merchandises or anticipates owning, 
                                producing, manufacturing, processing, 
                                or merchandising;
                                    (bb) liabilities that a person has 
                                incurred or anticipates incurring; or
                                    (cc) services that a person 
                                provides, purchases, or anticipates 
                                providing or purchasing; or
                            (ii) reduces risks attendant to a position 
                        resulting from a swap that--
                                    (I) was executed opposite a 
                                counterparty for which the transaction 
                                would qualify as a bona-fide hedging 
                                transaction; or
                                    (II) meets the requirements of 
                                clause (i).
                    (B) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the 
                Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
            (2) Duty of chairman of the commission.--Notwithstanding 
        section 2 of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 2) or any 
        other provision of law (including regulations), not later than 
        14 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chairman 
        of the Commission shall unilaterally--
                    (A) establish 1 or more speculative position limits 
                in any registered entity on or through which crude oil, 
                gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, or heating oil futures 
                or swaps are traded that are equal to the position 
                accountability levels or position limits, as 
                appropriate, established by the New York Mercantile 
                Exchange;
                    (B) establish 1 or more speculative position limits 
                that are equal to the position accountability levels or 
                position limits, as appropriate, established by the New 
                York Mercantile Exchange on the aggregate number or 
                amount of positions in contracts based upon the same 
                underlying commodity that may be held by any person, 
                including any group or class of traders, for each month 
                across--
                            (i) contracts listed by designated contract 
                        markets;
                            (ii) with respect to an agreement, 
                        contract, or transaction that settles against 
                        any price (including the daily or final 
                        settlement price) of 1 or more contracts listed 
                        for trading on a registered entity, contracts 
                        traded on a foreign board of trade that 
                        provides members or other participants located 
                        in the United States with direct access to the 
                        electronic trading and order matching system of 
                        the foreign board of trade; and
                            (iii) swap contracts that perform or affect 
                        a significant price discovery function with 
                        respect to regulated entities;
                    (C) establish margin requirements of 12 percent for 
                speculative swaps and futures trading in crude oil, 
                gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and heating oil;
                    (D) require that each bank holding company, 
                investment bank, hedge fund, or swaps dealer engaged in 
                the trading of energy futures or swaps for the benefit 
                of the bank holding company, investment bank, hedge 
                fund, or swaps dealer or on the behalf of, or as 
                counterparty to, an index fund, exchange traded fund, 
                or other noncommercial participant--
                            (i) register with the Commission as a 
                        noncommercial participant; and
                            (ii) be subject to each position limit and 
                        margin requirement under this subsection for 
                        each position in a manner by which the position 
                        is considered to be a speculative, proprietary 
                        position of the bank holding company, 
                        investment bank, hedge fund, or swaps dealer;
                    (E) take any other action that the Chairman of the 
                Commission determines to be necessary to eliminate 
                excessive speculation in the aggregate to ensure that 
                the price of crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, jet 
                fuel, and heating oil accurately reflects the 
                fundamentals of supply and demand; and
                    (F) ensure that each bank holding company, hedge 
                fund, investment bank, and swaps dealer that is engaged 
                in the trading of energy futures or swaps for the 
                benefit of the bank holding company, hedge fund, 
                investment bank, and swaps dealer, or on the behalf of, 
                or as counterparty to, 1 or more noncommercial 
                participants, abides by each position limit and margin 
                requirement under this subsection.
            (3) Applicability.--Each position limit and margin 
        requirement under this subsection shall not apply to bona-fide 
        hedge trading.
            (4) Adjustments.--Notwithstanding section 2 of the 
        Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 2) or any other provision of 
        law (including regulations), the Chairman of the Commission may 
        adjust any position limit under this subsection to the extent 
        that the position of all noncommercial participants or 
        speculators (in the aggregate and measured on an annual basis) 
        shall not equal an amount greater than 35 percent of the 
        annual, aggregate position of all traders in such futures and 
        swaps market or markets for crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, 
        jet fuel, and heating oil trading.
            (5) Sunset.--
                    (A) In general.--This Act, and the authority 
                provided under this Act, shall terminate on the date on 
                which the Commission imposes position limits to 
                diminish, eliminate, or prevent excessive speculation 
                as required by, and increased margin requirements as 
                authorized in, title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street 
                Reform and Consumer Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 8301 et 
                seq.) (and amendments made by that Act).
                    (B) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress 
                that, if finalized, the proposed position limits for 
                derivatives that the Commission included in the notice 
                of proposed rulemaking entitled ``Position Limits for 
                Derivatives'' (76 Fed. Reg. 4752 (January 26, 2011)) 
                are not sufficient to fulfill the statutory 
                requirements of title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street 
                Reform and Consumer Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 8301 et 
                seq.) (and amendments made by that Act) to diminish, 
                eliminate, or prevent excessive speculation.
                                 <all>