Obama says new task force will examine gas prices

[babylonsister]

Obama says new task force will examine gas prices
AP

By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Julie Pace, Associated Press – 28 mins ago


RENO, Nev. – President Barack Obama said Thursday that the Justice Department will try to "root out" cases of fraud or manipulation in oil markets, even as Attorney General Eric Holder suggested a variety of legal reasons may be behind gasoline's surge to $4 a gallon.

"We are going to make sure that no one is taking advantage of the American people for their own short-term gain," Obama said at a town-hall style meeting at a renewable energy plant in Reno, Nev.

With the 2012 campaign in mind, the White House is anxious to show the public it's taking action to address rising gas prices. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.84 on Thursday, about 30 cents higher than a month ago and almost a dollar higher than a year ago.

Obama, decrying such levels as yet another hardship "at a time when things were already pretty tough," said Holder was forming the Financial Fraud Enforcement Working Group.

The task force will focus some of its investigation on "the role of traders and speculators" in the oil-price surge, Obama said, and will include several Cabinet department officials, federal regulators and the National Association of Attorneys General.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110422/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama

[jeanpalmer]

1. "We are going to make sure that no one is taking advantage

of the American people."

More disingenuous rhetoric. He'll do nothing of the sort. He doesn't care about the American people. He's just distributing campaign talking points.

[golddigger]

2. Must be election time.

[DJ13]

3. ..... and if they find price manipulations expect

a strongly worded letter.

[doc03]

4. Here we go the yearly Dog and Pony show about gas

prices. Must be an election coming up the Justice Department is getting involved this year. The congressional hearings should be starting soon to. To save everyone time the Democrats will yell at the oil people calling them names and insulting them. Then the Republicans will apologise for the rude treatment from the Democrats. The hearings break up when the prices go down and nothing gets done. The American people go back to buying SUVs as soon as the first snow flake falls.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. good for the time being but we need to wean ourselves off gas

in the future this country needs to wave goodbye to gas.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. They'll go to a suburban station, and declare "Gosh, it is higher than last year"

and that will be that.

They aren't affected in the least, except maybe in political terms.

[Moondog]

7. What a load of hooey.

[Armstead]

8. They don;t need an investigation. It's fairly obvious that there is a systemic rip off

But, as with most things, the task force will wag fingers but there will be no effort to make fundamental changes to decouple the price of gas from the Darwinian forces of the unregulated free market.

[Marblehead]

9. Don't forget

to check the value of the dollar too.

[jenmito]

10. K&R. I was happy to hear him talk about that and how more drilling will NOT lower

gas prices. We have enough oil.

[girl gone mad]

11. Start with whoever made the decision to prop up the zombie banks..

and keep pumping cheap money straight into the financial sector so they could pretend to be solvent and play these bubble games.

Oh, wait... many of those people work/ed in the White House and at the Fed.

Okay then. Just find some small time trader to pin it all on, instead.

[SwampG8r]

12. they should be able to get it over 8 bucks a gallon

thanks again mr president

[GeorgeGist]

13. Taking advantage of Americans ...

is still OK if it's for their long-term gain.