In Delaware, the average gas price has reached $3.51 a gallon and everyone is feeling a pinch at the pump. The federal agency dedicated to monitoring the oil market for abuse and speculation, which protects consumers, has been working hard to keep market-manipulation at bay. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been consumers’ cop on the beat since its creation in 1975, safeguarding against fraud and abuse that lead to higher consumer prices.
It is unfortunate that the budget passed by House Republicans earlier this year would slash the CFTC’s operational budget by one-third. This would severely limit that agency’s ability to protect consumers and keep market-manipulators from driving gas prices even higher. According to CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, such a cut would lead to “significant curtailment of staff and resources.”
Senator Coons and forty-seven other Senate Democrats sent a letter today to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warning about the risk of holding back key resources from the CFTC, especially at a time when gas prices are already high. Equally disturbing, they wrote, are the House Republicans’ cuts to a range of programs focused on developing alternative sources of energy, including clean fuel technologies that will help wean us off our dependence on foreign oil.
In their letter, Chris and other Senate Democrats called for real bipartisan solutions to our energy problems, particularly a “sensible fiscal policy that invests in what we need to grow and cuts what doesn’t, without undermining our mission to transition to a safe, clean, and affordable future.”
Click here to read the full letter, and for a complete list of the senators who signed it.