Sanders: Oil Speculators Must Cease Price Manipulation

By Lisa Kellman

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is urging federal regulators to takes measures that would prevent oil speculators from artificially inflating prices.

“The bottom line is that we have a responsibility to ensure that the price of oil is no longer allowed to be driven up by the same Wall Street speculators who caused the devastating recession that working families are now experiencing,” Sanders, who sent a letter Monday, said in a statement.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is slated to consider a ruling Monday on a similar measure that Sanders says falls short of what Congress envisioned with last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

Sanders noted that stronger regulations carry additional weight in light of the coming cold months, when families will need oil for heating.

He referenced a study from Better Markets, a nonpartisan organization that supports regulating speculative trading, which showed that speculation increases commodity prices independent of the law of supply and demand.