[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3071]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GAS PRICES

  (Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, as we do here in Congress 
every time that gas prices rise, Members from both sides of the aisle 
are quick to blame each other. The reasons we find ourselves with high 
gas prices today aren't simple, and we should be wary of anyone who's 
offering an overly simple, one-stop solution to this crisis. We can 
take some steps to try to calm these prices today, but the real fixes 
are going to take years--and a willingness to lower the partisan 
rhetoric around this issue is going to be part of the equation.
  One thing we can do now in the short term is to make sure that our 
commodities markets are functioning rationally. That means empowering 
Federal regulators to ensure that oil prices can't be driven simply by 
financial speculation. We need the Commodities Futures Trading 
Commission to enforce strong trading limits to police speculation in 
energy markets, and we here in Congress have to give them the resources 
they need to do that. The problem we face today isn't one of supply and 
demand. Demand is at its lowest in 17 years. Supply is at its highest 
in 3 years. This is a question of making sure that speculation isn't 
running the price up too fast and too quickly. It's our job to put some 
speed bumps along the road.

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