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ENERGY
Coalition Files Court Brief on Speculation Limits
New England Fuel Institute (NEFI) and the Petroleum Marketers
Association of America (PMAA) recently led a broad coalition of energy
and agricultural industry trade groups in filing an amicus curiae brief
with the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia in support of
speculative position limits in the commodity markets. The position
limits rule was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading
Commission (CFTC) on October 18, 2011. The rule was then vacated
by a District Court judge in September citing an “ambiguous” mandate
from Congress and a lack of a finding of necessity by federal
regulators. The CFTC has appealed the decision, and the Commodity
Markets Oversight Coalition (CMOC) is supporting its efforts.
In its brief, the CMOC argued in opposition to the District Court’s
ruling. The Congressional mandate to set hard limits on speculative
trading in commodities was in fact “unambiguous,” they said. The
brief cites nearly a decade of investigations into the role of speculation
by the U.S. Congress and the Government Accountability Office (GAO),
including dozens of hearings into the matter. Lawmakers also received
extensive expert testimony by CMOC member associations on the
harm that excessive speculation was causing their industries and
constituent businesses. “Congress had been gathering evidence for
nearly a decade about excessive speculation and had already
concluded that [excessive speculation] constituted an undue burden
on interstate commerce,” they argued.
“Congress had studied and identified a serious crisis that it
wanted remedied quickly.” Therefore, Congress
required
in the
2010 Dodd-Frank Act that regulators set speculative position limits
in commodities. Lawmakers also required an expedited rulemaking
process and a study into the effect of the rule to be conducted one
year after limits were imposed. Given this, “there should be no doubt
that Congress was mandating swift and decisive action to end what it
believed was a serious problem,” the coalition said.
The following organizations signed the coalition brief:
NEFI Alert Generates 242
Letters in Support of Keystone XL
NEFI’s recent “call to action” generated 242 letters in support of the
vital TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline. The action alert was part of a
broader campaign led by the Consumer Energy Alliance that
generated over 300,000 letters to the State Department on its
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Keystone
XL pipeline. The Department was accepting public comments on the
SEIS through April 22, 2013. The national debate over the project has
become heated in recent weeks with both supporters and opponents
stepping up efforts given that President Obama is expected to make a
final decision on the pipeline project in the coming months.
Last week, the Republican-led House Natural Resources Committee
approved the Keystone XL Northern Route Approval Act (H.R.3) by a
vote of 24-17. New Englanders on the committee – Representatives
Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) and Nikki Tsongas (D-MA) – voted against
the bill. Ranking Member Ed Markey (D-MA) was not present for the
vote but opposes the Keystone XL pipeline. He voted against it when
the House Energy & Commerce Committee took up the bill a week
prior, approving it by a vote of 30-18. The full House could consider
the bill in the coming weeks. Supporters are hopeful of its prospects in
the Senate. A Keystone XL-related amendment to the Budget
resolution received a filibuster-proof majority of 62 Senators in March.
In a related development, NEFI recently submitted comments to
the U.S. State Department’s draft Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement (SEIS) for the Keystone XL pipeline project. The draft SEIS is
an integral step in the Presidential Permit process that will decide
whether or not to approve the proposed pipeline that will run from
the oil sand fields in Alberta, Canada down to U.S. Gulf coast refineries.
The draft SEIS drew over a million comments by the time the public
comment period closed on April 22. The State Department is required
to weigh the environmental impact of the pipeline before making a
recommendation on whether to approve the remaining 876 miles yet
to be built. Surprisingly, the State Department concluded in the draft
SEIS that the greenhouse gas impact from extracting, refining and
burning crude from the carbon intense oil sands cannot be avoided
even if the Keystone pipeline permit is denied because Canadians will
simply ship the crude through an alternative pipeline to the country’s
West Coast ports for export to foreign refiners.
While the draft SEIS stopped short of recommending approval of
the XL pipeline, many of its conclusions drew the ire of both the
environmental community and the EPA itself. NEFI told the State
Department in written comments that it supports the pipeline in order
to increase domestic supplies of refined product that will in turn lower
costs for all petroleum products across the board including home
heating oil in the Northeast. The final SEIS will not be ready until the end
of the year. A decision on the pipeline will be made shortly thereafter.
CONTACTS:
Michael Trunzo, President & CEO:
Jim Collura, NEFI Vice President for Government Affairs:
Mark S. Morgan, Esq., New England Fuel Institute Regulatory Counsel:
Continued …
Airlines forAmerica
AmericanBakersAssociation
AmericanFeed IndustryAssociation
AmericanPublicGasAssociation
AmericanTruckingAssociations
CaliforniaIndependentOilMarketersAssociation
CaliforniaServiceStation&AutoRepairAssociation
ColoradoPetroleumMarketers&Convenience
StoreAssociation
ConnecticutEnergyMarketersAssociation
EmpireStatePetroleumAssociation
FuelMerchantsAssociationofNewJersey
Gasoline&AutomotiveServiceDealersofAmerica
IllinoisAssociationofConvenienceStores
IllinoisPetroleumMarketersAssociation
IndependentOilMarketersAssociationof
NewEngland
IndustrialEnergyConsumersofAmerica
LouisianaOilMarketersandConvenience
StoreAssociation
MaineEnergyMarketersAssociation
MassachusettsOilheatCouncil
MississippiPetroleumMarketersand
ConvenienceStoresAssociation
MontanaPetroleumMarketersand
ConvenienceStoreAssociation
NAFAFleetManagementAssociation
NationalAssociationofShellMarketers
NationalFamilyFarmCoalition
NationalFarmersUnion
NationalGrange
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TradeAssociation
NewEnglandFuelInstitute
NewYorkOilHeatingAssociation
OilHeatCouncilofNewHampshire
OilHeat InstituteofLongIsland
OilHeat InstituteofRhodeIsland
PennsylvaniaPetroleumAssociation
PetroleumMarketers&ConvenienceStoresofIowa
PetroleumMarketersAssociationofAmerica
PetroleumMarketersAssociationofKansas
Rancher-CattlemenActionLegalFund(R-CALF)USA
UtahPetroleumMarketersandRetailersAssociation
VermontFuelDealersAssociation
WashingtonOilMarketersAssociation
WestVirginiaOilMarketersandGrocersAssociation
WyomingPetroleumMarketers&Convenience
StoreAssociation
