U.S. Legislative Updates

NAFA Joins Effort To Stop Oil And Gas Market Speculation

NAFA has joined with other national organizations in the Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition in an effort to bring attention to the impact that oil and gas speculation is having on the soaring cost of gasoline and diesel. The coalition advocates in favor of government policies that promote stability and confidence in the oil and gas markets, that seek to prevent fraud, manipulation, and excessive speculation, and that preserve the interests of bona fide hedgers and consumers.

Attorney General Forms Task Force To Monitor Oil And Gas Market Speculation

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced the formation of an Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group to help identify civil or criminal violations in the oil and gasoline markets. The move is in response to oil and gasoline prices reaching a three-year high. The oil and gas price fraud working group will monitor energy markets for potential violations of criminal or civil laws to safeguard against unlawful consumer harm, according to the Justice Department.

Congress Continues To Focus On Ethanol Subsidies

Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), have introduced legislation that would transition the current 45 cent ethanol tax credit to a variable credit that would adjust based on the price of oil. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators led by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Tom Coburn (R-OK), have introduced the Ethanol Subsidy and Tariff Repeal Act, which would eliminate the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) by July 1, and repeal the import tariff on foreign ethanol legislation to end the ethanol tax credit. The forty-five cent tax credit expires at the end of this year unless Congress renews it.

NAFA Fleet Management Association
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