While we cannot ignore the fact that big oil companies have been gouging consumers at the pump for years and have made almost $1 trillion in profits over the past decade, there is mounting evidence that the increased price of gasoline has nothing to do with supply and demand and everything to do with Wall Street speculators jacking up oil and gas prices in the energy futures market.



Ten years ago, speculators only controlled about 30 percent of the oil futures market. Today, Wall Street speculators control more than 80 percent of this market, even though many of them will never use a drop of this oil. Their only function in this process is to make as much money as they can, as quickly as they can.



Don't just take it from me. Let me quote from a June 2 article in the Wall Street Journal: "Wall Street is tapping a real gusher in 2011, as heightened volatility and higher prices of oil and other raw materials boost banks' profits... by 55 percent in the first quarter."



The CEO of Exxon-Mobil, Rex Tillerson, in response to a question at a Senate hearing, estimated that speculation was driving up the price of a barrel of oil by as much as 40 percent. The general counsel of Delta Airlines, Ben Hirst, and the experts at Goldman Sachs have all said that excessive speculation is causing oil prices to spike by 20-40 percent. Even Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter of oil in the world, told the Bush Administration back in 2008, during the last major spike in oil prices, that speculation was responsible for about $40 of a barrel of oil.



In other words, the same Wall Street speculators that caused the worst financial crisis since the 1930s through their greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior are ripping off the American people again by gambling that the price of oil and gas will continue to go up, and up, and up.



Sadly, the spike in oil and gasoline prices was entirely avoidable. The Wall Street reform Act, Dodd-Frank, required the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to impose strict limits on the amount of oil that Wall Street speculators could trade in the energy futures market by January 17 of this year.



Almost five months later, the CFTC has still not imposed those speculation limits. In other words, the chief regulator on oil speculation is clearly breaking the law and is not doing what it is supposed to be doing.



Last month, six other senators and I held a meeting in my office with Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the CFTC.



Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in both the tone of the meeting and the complete lack of urgency at the CFTC with respect to cracking down on oil speculators as required by law. Therefore, today I introduced legislation with Senators Blumenthal, Merkley, Franken, Whitehouse and Bill Nelson to end excessive oil speculation once and for all. I am also pleased to announce that Congressman Maurice Hinchey will be introducing this legislation in the House.



This legislation mandates that the Chairman of the CFTC take immediate actions to eliminate excessive oil speculation within two weeks.