Oil Speculation Control Act of 2008

A bill to amend the Commodity Exchange Act to ensure the application of speculation limits to speculators in energy markets, and for other purposes.

6/12/2008--Introduced.
Oil Speculation Control Act of 2008 - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to define "institutional investor" as a long-term investor in financial markets (including pension funds, endowments, and foundations) that invests in energy commodities as an asset class in a portfolio of financial investments and does not take or make physical delivery of energy commodities on a frequent basis.
Establishes in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) an Office of the Inspector General.
Directs the CFTC to carry out a review of the trading practices of index traders, swap dealers, and institutional investors in markets under the CFTC's jurisdiction to:
(1) ensure that index trading is not adversely impacting the price discovery process;
(2) determine whether different practices or regulations should be implemented; and
(3) gather data for use in proposing regulations to limit the size and influence of the institutional investor positions in commodity markets.
Directs the CFTC to exercise emergency authority to prevent institutional investors from increasing their positions in energy commodity futures and commodity future index funds.
Defines:
(1) "bona fide hedging transaction or position" as a transaction or position that represents a hedge against price risk exposure relating to physical transactions involving an energy commodity and
(2) "speculator" as any institutional investor or investor of an investment fund that holds a position through an intermediary broker or dealer.
Directs the CFTC to enforce speculation limits with respect to speculators in energy markets.
Set forth recordkeeping and reporting requirements relating to large trader transactions and positions applicable to index traders, swaps dealers, and institutional investors in markets under the CFTC's jurisdiction.
Requires the CFTC to promulgate regulations to establish separate classifications for index traders, swap dealers, and institutional investors to enforce recordkeeping and reporting requirements and to enforce position limits and position accountability levels with respect to energy commodities.
Imposes certain institutional investor speculation limits with respect to energy commodities.


... morehide bill summary

Sponsor

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D, CA]
• and 2 Co-Sponsors
  • Ted Stevens
  • Sen. Ron Wyden [D, OR]
  close

Committees

• Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

Amendments

This bill has no amendments.

Amendments to S.3131

Number	Status	Purpose

Bill Status

Make a Bill Status Widget

	OpenCongress widgets allow you to display information about bills and issue areas on your own website or blog. First, select which bill or issue you want to track, then customize the appearance of the panel, and finally paste a simple chunk of HTML into your site. Now your community will have an easy, up-to-date way to track the status of important bills and issues in Congress.

Introduced		Voted on by Senate		Voted on by House		Considered By President		Bill Becomes Law
June 12, 2008

Show All Actions (3 actions)Hide Actions

All Bill Actions

• Introduced on Jun 12, 2008.
• Jun 12, 2008: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S5629-5630)
• Jun 12, 2008: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

---

Related Issue Areas:

• Finance
• Administrative procedure
• Business
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• 21 more
• Commodity exchanges
• Energy
• Executive departments
• Executive reorganization
• Foundations
• Futures trading
• Government information
• Government paperwork
• Independent regulatory commissions
• Inspectors general
• Investments
• Investors
• Law
• Pension funds
• Pensions
• Petroleum
• Politics and government
• Prices
• Restrictive trade practices
• Social services
• Swaps (Finance)

Data from the Congressional Research Service

Users tracking S.3131 (1) are also tracking:

Show More User Statistics... Hide User Statistics

In the News

We are not currently finding any news articles on this topic using our daily automated search of Google News. However, if you know of a relevant news article to display here, OpenCongress site editors have the ability to add it manually. Simply e-mail us the web address of this page and the web address of your suggested news article: We'll post relevant links as quickly as possible. Also, if this topic is important to you, you could write a letter to the editor -- if a news article refers this specific topic by name, a link to that news article is likely to appear here soon.

Information made available by:

Blog Coverage

June 13, 2008 DiFi offers bill to curb speculation, cut gas prices

Feinstein’s and Stevens’ S.3131 would require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to impose the same position limits on institutional investors to which other investors now are subject. Under current law, CFTC is required to ...

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: Political Blotter

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

June 13, 2008 Feinstein, Stevens introduce bill to limit speculation in energy ...

Specifically the bill (S.3131) would: * Require CFTC to review the trading practices of institutional investors and their dealers within 30 days: - To ensure that their trading is not adversely impacting the market, with respect to ...

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: YubaNet.com

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

June 11, 2008 Bill Action: Introduced: S. 3131: A bill to amend the Commodity ...

Dianne Feinstein [D-CA] introduced S. 3131: A bill to amend the Commodity Exchange Act to ensure the application of speculation limits to speculators in energy markets, and for other purposes. [This event matched these trackers: Active ...

Was this article useful? Yes or No

Source: Active Legislation -- Tracked by govtrack.us

Did you find this article useful? Your opinion counts - together, we're finding the very best news and blog coverage about Congress available on the web.

2 more posts...
See most useful blog posts

Information made available by: