Airlines Lobby To Quash Oil Speculation
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Stung by sky-high fuel costs, the heads of 12 major American airlines are launching a campaign to urge Congress to crack down on speculators trading in oil markets.
“Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab,” the airline chiefs said in an unusual joint letter e-mailed to frequent flyers yesterday. “Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight.”
The airlines also launched a Web site, StopOilSpeculationNow.com, which warns of “runaway speculation.”
