[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14146-14147]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RISING PRICE OF GASOLINE

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise this morning to talk about the 
ever-increasing problem and crisis we have in this country with the 
rising price of gasoline.
  Many of my colleagues saw that yesterday oil futures hit $140 a 
barrel; I think today it is up to $141 a barrel. The stock market, I 
think, is responding to the anxieties that oil costs are causing to our 
economy and the future prospects of some people speculating it might 
even be going up to $150 or $200 a barrel. This is a problem for us and 
a problem that this body needs to address and needs to address quickly.
  Many people at home are understanding--because at almost $4.30, 
whatever people are paying for gasoline across the country, in 
Washington State we seem to pay a higher price than the Nation, on 
average--are starting to understand what the oil futures market is and 
how much speculation is happening.
  But we can see today that on world consumption, there are about 86 
million barrels of oil a day that are consumed. But what people might 
find surprising is that the volume of that oil traded back and forth on 
a daily basis is over 1 billion barrels per day.
  So we produce 86 million, but yet we trade it over and over and over 
again.

[[Page 14147]]

In fact, 14 times we trade and sell one barrel of this oil back and 
forth every day. Many of my colleagues and myself have concerns about 
the fact that much of this trading, at least this chunk of it, done on 
the Intercontinental Exchange is done in a dark market. So we do not 
know what kinds of positions people hold, we do not have the same 
requirements for excessive trading that we do on NYMEX and on the 
Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
  So we have a lot of anxiety that there is a lot of trading going on 
in the dark that people do not understand and that this situation, 
while we are out on recess, could be exacerbated; that we could have a 
grave problem while we are seeing this continue to shoot up.
  A few weeks ago, we had the price shoot up $10 in 1 day. So my 
colleagues in the House responded to this, knowing it is an emergency 
situation. In fact, 402 House Members recognized this is an emergency 
situation, passed legislation yesterday that was brought to the floor, 
not a lot of discussion or debate. There have been many hearings, but 
the decision was made, because we are leaving, to bring up this 
emergency declaration to say to the CFTC that they should use their 
emergency authority to make sure they are cracking down on any 
excessive speculation in all markets, including those that currently 
have loopholes, such as the Foreign Boards of Trade, such as ICE, those 
exempt electronic markets and any exempt swaps and bilateral energy 
trading.
  That is what 402 of our House colleagues said, is that they believe 
it is an emergency and that the CFTC should use its emergency authority 
and use that authority to make sure that excessive speculation is 
investigated, that they demand that people reduce position limits, that 
they have overall stricter position limits, and that they be aggressive 
while we are gone on recess.
  So while we are taking a holiday, there is no holiday for consumers 
from higher gas prices. But one thing we can do is make sure the chief 
agency in charge of policing these oil markets uses its emergency 
authority while we are gone to do everything they can to protect 
consumers.
  I think this is important legislation. And the fact that 402 of our 
colleagues also agreed in the House of Representatives, led by 
Representative Chris Van Hollen and Representative Bart Stupak, it is 
time we do the same thing.
  As I said, they did not have a lot of time to discuss this, they were 
all in agreement that this is an emergency situation, and we should 
make sure the CFTC uses that emergency authority.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.r. 6377

  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of this House bill, H.R. 6377, the Energy Markets 
Emergency Act, which was received from the House; the bill be read 
three times and passed; and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the 
table with no intervening action or debate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Mr. SESSIONS. Reserving the right to object. Would the Senator amend 
the unanimous consent request, that this legislation be the first order 
of business following disposition of the FISA legislation and that the 
first amendment in order be a McConnell amendment, which is the text of 
S. 3202, the Gas Price Reduction Act?
  Ms. CANTWELL. I do not agree to the modification of my request.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I object on behalf of the leaders on 
this side.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Objection is heard.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I am obviously disappointed that my 
colleague on the other side of the aisle is objecting to this request 
because this legislation passed by us could go to the President's desk, 
and we would be sending a very strong message today, that while we are 
gone, this is a serious crisis, and we expect the Federal regulator, 
the policeman on the beat, to be doing their job while we are gone.
  We have tried to say to this agency that they should be more 
aggressive. We have pushed them with letters; we have pushed them with 
oversight hearings. But now we have our colleagues in the House of 
Representatives saying: You shall use your emergency authority.
  It is disappointing that even though 402 Members, a majority of 
Republicans and a majority of Democrats--I think only 19 people did not 
vote in favor of this particular measure--that over 400 Members thought 
this was such an emergency that we should take this action.
  It is very unfortunate that while we are going on holiday, our 
consumers are not going to have a holiday from high gas prices and will 
not have the protections and the indication that we have said is 
critical to making sure oil markets are properly policed and that we do 
not continue to see this rising and huge increase in gas prices while 
we are gone.
  I am very disappointed in the objection and will continue to fight 
this issue to make sure our consumers are protected by the Federal 
agencies that are supposed to be doing their job in protecting them 
from excessive speculation and manipulation.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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