Truckers target oil speculation

Truckers target oil speculation    The U.S. government must ensure the transparency of energy commodity derivatives markets and establish aggregate position limits across all trading platforms, including over-the-counter markets and foreign exchanges, said Randy Mullett, vice president at Con-way Inc.
   Mullett made his remarks during a press conference in Washington, speaking on behalf of the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
   “While we cannot quantify the extent to which excessive speculation is responsible for the recent dramatic increases in the price of crude oil, we believe that it is a significant part of the problem,” he said.
   ATA said, “In the past year crude oil inventory was well above average, global demand remained weak and the dollar declined by only 8 percent relative to the euro, yet the price of oil has almost doubled.”
   'In the face of these market realities, excessive speculation is the only other variable left unaccounted for,' Mullett said.
   Diesel fuel is the second-highest expense for most trucking companies and that every 1-cent increase in the price of diesel costs the trucking industry an additional $340 million a year, ATA said.
   'The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has taken an initial step in proposing position limits for energy trades on certain commodities exchanges; however, this step by itself is insufficient to curb the problem of excessive speculation,' Mullett said. 'Congress must act to broaden the CFTC's authority and eliminate trading loopholes. The failure to apply position limits across all trading platforms creates a loophole that permits excessive speculation beyond the control of government regulators.'