Car News Articles

Bloomberg reports that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is proposing new rules to increase government interven… err… oversight in energy markets. He wants to “require the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate trading in energy futures contracts and direct the commission to investigate ways to lessen speculation, such as increasing margin requirements.” As oil takes an extended sojourn in the neighborhood of $135/barrel, Obama joins the growing chorus blaming high oil prices on greedy speculators. While Sen. Obama rails against the “Enron loophole”– allowing energy speculators to speculate without Uncle Sam riding herd– he’s also busy promoting ethanol. And ethanol is promoting him. According to the New York Times, one of Obama’s advisors, Tom Daschle (yes, that one), identifies himself as a man who spends “a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.” (That’s a lobbyist, to you and me.) Obama’s also traveled on a corporate jet owned by “Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nation’s largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state;” not-so-coincidentally the nation’s second-largest corn producing state. In fairness to Senator Obama… no, that’s all I got. 

Read more