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Gas prices fact check: Six ideas in Congress, but can they work?

Soaring gas prices have also shown a consistent and significant ability to push members of Congress over the deep end. Here's the experts' take on 6 ideas floating through Congress.

2. Rein in speculators

Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Democratic Reps. Barney Frank (l.) and Ed Markey of Massachusetts address oil speculation at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington last month.

  • By David Grant Staff writer

As for speculation, other Democrats have echoed Congressman Israel's tweet. 

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) of California said last month: Gasoline “supply is going up, demand is going down, and the price is going up. It is very contradictory. So how do you explain that? You explain it by recognizing that Republicans are protecting Wall Street speculators responsible for driving up the pain at the pump.”

While Mr. Kloza points out that the "paper market" for gasoline – that is, investors buying financial products linked to oil and gas – has grown even as the country's physical market has shrunk during the past five years, solving the speculation problem isn’t a near-term solution.

“The genie is out of the bottle," he says. "The idea of regulating [speculation] when participation comes from a multitude of countries, and it's in the electronic space right now is incredibly daunting.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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