US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, on Tuesday pressed regulators to enact position limits immediately in order to curb rising gasoline prices and called for a federal investigation into price manipulation.
"Speculators continue to artificially inflate the price of gas, and consumers continue to pay the price," Blumenthal wrote in a letter to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler. "The Commission has done the necessary work to clearly establish legal authority to enforce position limits. It should use this authority now."
Blumenthal wrote that gasoline prices, which have reached $4.15 per gallon in Connecticut, are rising in a market "skewed by speculation."
The first phase of the CFTC's controversial position limit regime, which is the subject of a federal lawsuit, is scheduled to go into effect October 12.
The limits, which were approved by the agency nearly a year ago, were mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
In a separate letter Tuesday to US Attorney General Eric Holder, Blumenthal called on the Department of Justice to "use existing and new legal tools to investigate and crack down on anticompetitive and manipulative practices," which he claims are inflating gasoline prices.
