U.S. Congressman Sam Graves
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U.S. Congressman Sam Graves
U.S. Congressman Sam Graves continued his push today to enact legislation that will help bring relief to farmers, seniors and manufacturers who are being burned by high natural gas prices. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reauthorization breezed through the House and is now on its way to the Senate. Graves was able to add language to the CFTC reauthorization bill that will help prevent and punish traders for engaging in market manipulation on the natural gas market.
“Natural gas prices are skyrocketing out of control,” said Graves. “Today, the House addressed the problem of market manipulation by New York traders. I call on the Senate to quickly consider and pass this legislation with the Graves’ provision intact.”
The key provisions of the language would:
a. Require the CFTC to review the factors that cause price movement in the event of significant and highly unusual change in the nature gas futures price.
b. Requires traders to maintain records of their contracts, agreements and transactions for five years. This provides a paper trail to track market manipulation.
c. Increases the civil and criminal monetary fines for manipulation or attempted manipulation from a maximum $500,000 to $1 million dollars. It also increases the maximum jail time from five years to 10 years.
Currently, natural gas heats about 55% of America’s households and makes up 70-90% of the production costs for nitrogen based fertilizer. As a result of recent increases in demand and price, many of the nation’s farmer have seen their fertilizer costs more than double, while those Americans living on fixed incomes – like many seniors – find themselves spending more and more of their limited income to heat their homes.
“Many seniors are struggling just to pay their natural gas bill,” said Graves. “This bill is the only short-term solution in Congress and we need relief right now.”
Natural gas accounts for more than 37% of industrial energy consumption. Since it is the cleanest burning fossil fuel, many industries switched to natural gas to comply with clean air laws and now are being squeezed by high energy costs. A recovering manufacturing sector is being hampered by soaring natural gas prices.
Graves has been the leading advocate in Washington for reigning in market manipulation. He held a hearing in March on the subject and shepherded this amendment into the bill and through the House.