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Congress Seeks to Close the 'Enron Loophole'
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ShareMay 15, 2008 1:22 PM
ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: Ken Lay has been dead almost two years and Jeffrey Skilling is several years into his 24 year prison sentence, but one legacy of the Enron era lives on.
It’s the "Enron loophole," which exempts energy speculators who make trades electronically from US regulation. Some argue that the unregulated energy speculation, codified in 2000, can account for $20 to $25 in the jump in oil prices.
But now, 8 years after energy traders were able to push legislation exempting their electronic trades of energy futures from US regulation, a measure in the Farm Bill aims to close the loophole and subject futures trades made electronically inside the United States to US law.
“This bill is really our best bet to deter unscrupulous traders from manipulating energy prices and engaging in excessive speculation. This has been a long, hard road – and this is a major legislative victory," Said California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein after the Senate passed the underlying Farm Bill on a broad, bipartisan basis.
Specifically, according to her office, the bill would "require electronic energy traders to provide an audit trail and record-keeping, monitor for market manipulation, and increase financial penalties for cases of market manipulation and excessive speculation."
May 15, 2008 in Veepstakes | Permalink | User Comments (27)
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The Commodity Exchange Act was inacted in the 1930's. So Im confused how Clinton signed it?
Posted by: neo-connies | Aug 5, 2008 10:09:06 AM
news flash!!!! the clintons are not liberals.
Posted by: ward | Aug 19, 2008 3:36:26 PM
Did Senator Joe Biden vote for the "enron loophole"?
Posted by: Richard Wisener | Sep 4, 2008 9:27:01 AM
You fools are getting caught up in the classic two-sided partisan bickering, each thinking your side is right when in fact you are all wrong.
The result of the government regulation that will come as a result of closing the "Enron loophole" will be as disastrous to oil prices as the speculation. Everyone loves to pick a scapegoat when things are going wrong, but the idiotic scumbags who occupy 99.9% of Congress (representing the stupid public) are picking the wrong scapegoat. Lets not forget that their is a CARTEL named OPEC that determines the production of most of our oil, which ultimately decides the volatile prices. Of course, their is nothing Congress or Obama/McCain can do about that, so lets just blame people within our own country so that we can get (re)elected.
Posted by: Graham | Sep 8, 2008 9:51:20 PM
Don't allow Obama or McCain lull you into thinking they have the answer to the energy price issue. Democrats think that heavy government regulation of energy trading the answer. Republicans think that military action and drilling offshore is the answer. Both sides are drastically incorrect. An unregulated environment will inevitably lead to heavy investment in renewable energy, which will ultimately break us free from our addiction to foreign oil. We have scarce domestic oil reserves, and it will take at least a decade to recover whatever their is. That is too much time.
Posted by: Graham | Sep 8, 2008 10:04:37 PM
I wish Bush would get caught getting a blowjob, then maybe we could impeach him.
I mean since going to war under false pretense doesn't seem to do it. Anyone remember 6 months before 911 say he was going into Iraq with or without UN approval? Makes you wonder how the trade center miraculously imploded, especially building 7 several blocks away that wasn't touched by a plane. Might be a connection for those willing to open their eyes.
Posted by: Gfarce | Sep 14, 2008 2:32:21 AM
Just days after the Congress overrode Bush's veto of the Farm Bill, one of the biggest energy speculators, T. Boone Pickens, announced his Pickens Plan (he now loves wind and natural gas) rather than oil. He apparently realized that when the Farm Bill "closed the Enron loophole," his ability to make billions as an oil speculator was no longer possible. Look what closing the Enron loophole has done for our gas prices the last several weeks. His commodity hedge fund has now lost 84 percent of its value.
Posted by: Jack | Oct 9, 2008 2:55:13 PM
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