Sherrod Brown: Enforce oil speculation legislation

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown called for a crackdown on oil speculation Sunday.

Brown visited an Independence gas station to talk about rising oil and gas prices.

The Energy Information Administration said the supply of oil and gas is higher than it was three years ago, yet the average gas price is nearly twice as high as at that time, according to a release from Brown’s office.

“Excessive oil speculation and rising gas prices hurts virtually all Ohioans,” Brown said.

Oil speculation is when oil and gas prices are changed by investor activity, rather than actual supply and demand.

Brown said that no regulations exist to protect Ohioans from oil speculation and rising oil prices.

A Wall Street reform bill passed recently said that oil speculation limits were supposed to be enacted by January 2011.

“The Commodity Future Trades Commission (CFTC) has the power to set stricter limits—but it has yet to do so,” Brown said.

Brown sent a letter, signed by 70 members of Congress, to the CFTC, urging the enforcement of legislation to protect consumers and business owners from “artificially-inflated gas prices.”