Anyone know the status of the Bill in the house going after OIL SPECULATION?

Question

I for one would like to know whats going on with this.... and googling it gives spotty inconsistent returns on the subject.

Answer 1

I don't think Congress even knows what they are doing.

They have to resolve some important issues, like who are they going to go afer, since it's a world wide market and Congress does not have any control over the market

They are not sure who or what speculators really are, or where they exists.

Congress wanted to sue OPEC, then they thought they would try to put controls on production but once again, they don't have any controls

Right night the Republicans (and some Democrats) are pushing Congress to permit the drilling either on the eastern shelf or in Anwr.  Either site will reduce the price of oil and ultimately the price of gasoline

The Liberals want to tax the oil companies, put another tax on gasoline, and double the capital gains tax none of this would be productive but they're your elected members of Congress.

Congress is clueless, this is why this Congress has a 9% approval rating, the lowest ever recorded for Congress.

If your trading oil, the stock or commodity, keep trading it and don't wait for Congress to do anything.  - One thing for sure is they wont do anything productive,

Answer 2

Not sure. But I liked Newt Gingrich's idea. Dump enough oil, temporarily from the federal reserve to drop prices. The speculators would take a bath losing money.

BTW. Market speculators are in the various world wide markets. The U.S. congress  has no more authority in regulating them, than they do in sueing OPEC. Other than it makes a lot of gulible people believe they are doing something.

Answer 3

My question is, what does Congress think they can legally do to prevent people trading in a free open global market?

The US Gov can release some of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) but this would be a temporary fix.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_P...

Oil prices COULD (not a guarantee) drop for a day or few, then go right back up. As long as this Iran thing is on the front burner, oil could go to $200-250+ bbl in any military conflict.

When oil was trading in the $80's bbl, and people said oil might go to $100 and then crash, I posted on Y!A that I felt that oil would flirt w/ $100 and then go higher to $120 bbl (see my post history). I did not forecast $136-150 bbl oil. Oil exceed my normally conservative expectations.

07-12-2008

Now, I am predicting that any war with Iran could drive oil an easy $10-15 higher. Any extended supply disruption could drive oil to $200-250 bbl. Would not be immediate increase, maybe 6-18 months.

At this point, if I were running the USA, I would not do release the SPR. It would costs us more to replenish it. I hear on CNBC-TV that our average cost of oil in the SPR is about $10-15 bbl.

We may need this reserve in the event of any extended supply disruption.

Watched CNBC-TV Fast Money (07-11-2008) that if the US experienced a supply disruption and we run short of diesel fuel, the US could not have food delivered in stores as little as one week. Can you say panic and riots?

Many people don't see how serious this issues is. The USA uses 24% of the world's oil.

What can/ has gov done?

The CFTC has increased margin requirements by 100% but this has not stopped oil prices from going higher - hence US Gov cannot control oil prices or oil trading.

Congress needs to stop blaming oil markets  for their lack of commitment to alternative fuel or even drilling domestically.

As soon as we (people and Congress) get off out behind, and focus on alternative energy in the USA, the sooner we can say goodbye to foreign dependence on oil, just like Brazil has done starting this year.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Story?id=19380...

Brazil became energy independent

http://www.whataboutbrazil.com/brazil-be...

Answer 4

IT WILL NOT PASS,I  IT WILL KILL THE FREE MARKET TRADE.

LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY WILL MOVE TO ---DUBAI COMMODITY MARKET.

AND OIL SPECULATION service WILL BE RUNNING FROM MIDDLE EAST COUNTRY???

Answer 5

Hopefully nowhere. This is a hair-brained idea fomented by morons who know nothing about economics and the way free markets operate. These idiots can do whatever they want to "regulate" futures markets in an effort to help bring oil prices down and all they will accomplish is force more trading of such contracts overseas forcing us to lose more high paying American jobs. If they want to make energy more affordable, better to do the following:

* Allow more drilling in the US and off shore, including ANWR.

* Allow mining of oil shale. This was an acceptable idea when Jimmy Carter was President, but the markets were not ready because oil was too cheap. Why the Democrats have made this unacceptable now totally escapes me.

* Allow more nuclear power plants to be built and allow the waste to be stored in Yucca mountain where we've already spent billions of taxpayer dollars preparing the site.

* Provide tax credits to those buying fuel efficient cars or alternative fuel cars.

* Provide tax credits to utility companies providing power using nuclear or other nonpolluting sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, tidal and others.

* Provide more funding for public transportation.

* Make it easier to build new refineries in the US.

Pretty simple, but they just won't do it.