According to four energy security analysts who testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, gas prices are hyper-inflated purely by speculators on Wall Street and are not supported by market dynamics.
In fact, they say that crude oil prices should be somewhere around $60 a barrel — not the $140 per barrel that it’s current trading for on the futures markets.
One analyst said that it wouldn’t even take 30 days to drive prices lower if Congress stepped in to regulate speculation because fund managers would quickly liquidate their positions in futures markets.
“Record oil prices are inflated by speculation and not justified by market fundamentals,” according to Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co. “Based on supply and demand fundamentals, crude-oil prices should not be above $60 per barrel.”
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Man, I hope they are right and Congress has the political will to act accordingly. We will continue to monitor this…stay tuned.