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Klobuchar calls for Department of Justice Oil and Gas Market Fraud Task Force |
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With gas prices at an all-time high of $3.51 per gallon, today U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar called for the creation of a Department of Justice Oil and Gas Market Fraud Task Force to look into skyrocketing energy prices in the oil and gas sector. Klobuchar wrote U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging him to immediately create the task force, as part of the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force, as one step in helping middle class families cope with the drastic increase in energy prices.
“With oil soaring well over $100 a barrel and oil companies raking in record profits by drilling into middle class pocketbooks, it’s time American families had someone to look into what is going on,” said Klobuchar. “Gas prices are at an all-time record, and the onset of “Lake Season’ in Minnesota is near, so we must look for every possible opportunity to help our families save their hard-earned money in these difficult economic times.”
Klobuchar said it is no longer sufficient to say that high energy prices are simply the result of supply and demand. Energy market experts and states’ attorneys general have testified before Congress that the current high price of oil and gas cannot be explained by market forces.
Earlier this month, an executive from Exxon Mobil testified under oath that the price of oil should be $50 to $55 per barrel based on supply and demand fundamentals. In October 2007 the CEO of Marathon Oil, Clarence Cazalot Jr. said, “$100 oil isn’t justified by the physical demand in the market. It has to be speculation on the futures market that is fueling this.”
Klobuchar has joined Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) in proposing that the task force be part of the Corporate Fraud Task Force at the Department of Justice, which was established after the collapse of Enron and other revelations of corporate scandal. Since its establishment, the task force has produced more than a thousand convictions by aggressively prosecuting corporate fraud under existing laws. Creating this new division to oversee the oil and gas sector would help protect consumers from price gouging by oil companies.
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