[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 55 (Tuesday, May 9, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H2183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            WORKING TOGETHER TO ADDRESS RISING ENERGY PRICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 31, 2006, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today because we must find ways to 
effectively address the rising gas prices the citizens of the Nation 
are paying at the pump.
  Last week the House passed new legislation to address price gouging 
at the pump and set Federal penalties for price manipulation. The major 
oil companies say there are many factors in gas pricing, including 
basic economics of supply and demand, the switch to ethanol from MTBE 
as a clean fuel additive, and lack of refining capacity, among others, 
and that they have no control over the spiking gas prices.
  But my constituents, especially working people raising families and 
those on fixed incomes whose wallets are being pinched tighter and 
tighter, tell me they are not satisfied with those answers.
  Madam Speaker, it is time for the President to use the bully pulpit 
to get to the bottom of this issue the way that Teddy Roosevelt did. He 
should call to the Oval Office every chief executive of the major oil 
companies and let them explain to the American people why the average 
price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the United States today is 
nearly $3, and in some areas at least a dime over that.
  There is another area of the energy market that also needs attention. 
Recent news accounts have theorized that the commodity futures trading 
market could be partly responsible for the rapid jumps in gasoline 
prices over the past couple of months. This past weekend, television 
investigative reports pointed to the energy trading industry as an area 
in need of investigation to see if fraud or manipulation is occurring. 
I learned yesterday that bipartisan legislation was introduced in the 
Senate on this matter. Senators Feinstein and Snowe have a bill that 
would increase transparency and accountability in the energy markets.
  Madam Speaker, according to our colleagues, energy trades are often 
made using an electronic trading platform where no records are kept, so 
there is no audit trail for the Government to monitor. Currently, most 
energy exchanges occur on the New York Mercantile Exchange or on 
electronic exchanges such as the InterContinental Exchange. I was 
surprised to learn that while the New York Mercantile Exchange is 
regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the electronic 
exchanges like the InterContinental Exchange are largely unregulated, 
even though it is estimated that up to 80 percent of our energy 
commodities are traded on the InterContinental Exchange. Under CFTC 
regulations, traders using the New York Mercantile Exchange must keep 
records for 5 years and report large trading positions to the 
commission. But traders using the InterContinental Exchange keep no 
records. Additionally, traders using the New York exchange are subject 
to other Federal regulations, like limits on how much of a given 
commodity can be traded in one day. Traders using the InterContinental 
Exchange are not.
  Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability? Who are these 
speculators? The American people need to know their government is 
leaving no stone unturned in investigating this issue. After Hurricane 
Katrina, we saw prices jump. Many Americans certainly understood 
Katrina's wrath, but there were questions raised then about the almost 
overnight jump of gasoline prices. To find out if indeed there was 
gouging at the pump, this Congress ordered an investigation in last 
year's commerce spending bill. The FTC will report on May 22.
  Can markets really be manipulated? Think back to the electricity 
market manipulation by Enron. As a result, last year's energy bill gave 
more authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the 
regulation of natural gas and electricity markets including more 
transparency.
  In closing, there is no similar process for the Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission in the unregulated energy markets. Who is to say 
whether investment firms, commercial bankers or hedge funds could 
actually be driving up oil prices through futures trading?
  Madam Speaker, as I mentioned at the beginning, a good place to start 
would be for the President to have an Oval Office chat with the big oil 
executives. It would also be important to have the heads of the 
Securities and Exchange Commission, Chris Cox, our former colleague who 
is running the SEC; and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 
that meeting.
  We owe it to our constituents to find the answers, to bring everybody 
together. And so I urge the administration to do exactly what Teddy 
Roosevelt would have done, bring all the parties together to hammer 
this out, look at all of the trading to show and demonstrate we are 
doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this to begin to reduce 
these prices.

                          ____________________