JEANNE SHAHEEN DISCUSSES PROPOSALS TO LOWER GAS PRICES AND HELP NEW HAMPSHIRE FAMILIES STRUGGLING IN TODAY'S ECONOMY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 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 DISCUSSES PROPOSALS TO LOWER GAS PRICES AND HELP NEW HAMPSHIRE FAMILIES STRUGGLING IN TODAY'S ECONOMY

(Manchester, NH) —Today, former Governor and current candidate for U.S. Senate Jeanne Shaheen visited Littleton and Plymouth to discuss what we can do to bring down high gas prices and relieve the burden high energy costs are placing on middle class families.

"This summer, New Hampshire families have struggled to afford to fill their gas tanks," Shaheen said.  "Driving to and from work everyday, driving kids to day care, trying to take a family vacation – middle class families are really feeling the squeeze.
 
"The economy is struggling – prices are up and the dollar just isn't going far enough these days.  High gas prices are forcing families to make tough choices in order to make ends meet.
 
"We need leaders who will stand up for middle class families, not for stand with George Bush and the billion dollar hedge funds."  
 
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.

On Monday, the Jeanne Shaheen for Senate campaign announced a statewide series of events in which Shaheen will be talking about short-term and long-term proposals to lower the cost of gas and invest in alternative energy development.