JEANNE SHAHEEN MEETS WITH NASHUA VOTERS AND VOLUNTEERS TO PETITION TO CLOSE THE ENRON LOOPHOLE AND BRING DOWN HIGH GAS PRICES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2008
 
CONTACT:
Kate Bedingfield
603 782 4613 (o)/603 361 8036 (c)/ kbedingfield@jeanneshaheen.org

Caitlin Legacki
603 782 4613 (o)/603 361 9643 (c)/ clegacki@jeanneshaheen.org

JEANNE SHAHEEN MEETS WITH NASHUA VOTERS AND VOLUNTEERS TO PETITION TO CLOSE THE ENRON LOOPHOLE AND BRING DOWN HIGH GAS PRICES

(Manchester, NH) —Former Governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen visited Nashua today to meet with voters and volunteers who gathered to petition to call on John Sununu to close the Enron Loophole and bring an end to the unregulated oil speculation that has caused gas prices to skyrocket.
 
"Reckless speculation by Wall Street traders is driving up the price of oil for New Hampshire families," Shaheen said.  "We need leaders who will stand up and take real action to put New Hampshire families first."
 
On Monday, the Jeanne Shaheen for Senate campaign introduced an online petition that allows voters to call for an end to the Enron Loophole.  At the event, Shaheen encouraged voters and volunteers to sign the petition, sending a message to Washington that we need to end the reckless speculation on oil that is artificially driving up prices for New Hampshire's families.
 
"The Enron loophole was created by lobbyists for Enron to make it easier to inflate the price of energy commodities with almost no oversight, as they did during the California electricity crisis at the beginning of the decade," Shaheen said. "We need accountability and transparency in this market. 
 
"Right now, the needs of billion dollar hedge funds are being put ahead of the needs of middle class families.  Billion dollar traders are able to run up enormous profits and drive up the cost of oil in the process – with almost no oversight. That has to change."
 
Shaheen has outlined five steps Washington should take to help New Hampshire's middle class families, who are being squeezed like never before by today's gas prices:
 
*Close the Enron loophole.   The Enron loophole allows billion-dollar traders to evade speculation limits and manipulate oil markets anonymously, artificially driving up prices in an attempt to make huge profits.  The Enron loophole was created by lobbyists for Enron to make it easier to inflate the price of energy commodities with almost no oversight, as they did during the California electricity crisis at the beginning of the decade.
Shaheen believes we need to put an end to this practice and let the forces of supply and demand, not Wall Street traders, determine oil and gas prices.

*Close the London-Dubai loophole. Currently, this loophole allows nominally-foreign exchanges to operate in the U.S., trading U.S. oil contracts without any American regulation.  We need to be able to identify who is trading and how much so that we can know if fraud and malpractice are contributing to price increases.  Shaheen believes that when American families are being socked with $4 gas, it's unacceptable to be outsourcing our oversight of oil markets to Dubai.  We should close this loophole so we can identify traders and hold them accountable.

*Demand that refiners increase their production of oil. Refineries, most of which are controlled by the big oil companies, have been utilizing less than 85%* of their capacity for most of this year. Shaheen also believes should create an Oil and Gas Market Fraud Task Force to investigate allegations of oil and gas market manipulation and fraud, similar to the Corporate Fraud Task Force established in 2002 in the wake of the Enron scandals. *[U.S. Department of Energy]
 
*Stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and release 30 million barrels of oil. Shaheen believes we should bring prices down by increasing America's oil supply by releasing 30 million barrels of oil from the Reserve.
 
*Pressure OPEC to increase production. Right now, under U.S. anti-trust laws, OPEC countries cannot be held accountable, even when they are engaged in coordinated activity to manipulate the global oil market.  Shaheen believes we should amend the law so that the Justice Department can bring suits in US courts against OPEC for price fixing.