LARSON GIVES LOCAL CITIZEN CREDIT FOR SPECULATION BILL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 18, 2008

CONTACT: Emily Barocas/ 202-225-7295

LARSON GIVES LOCAL CITIZEN CREDIT FOR SPECULATION BILL

Bill to lower oil prices andrestore the market passes the House.

Washington, DC - Today, the House of Representativespassed legislation that will restore integrity to our energy futuresmarkets. It restores the fundamentals ofsupply and demand in a market that has been struck by rampant speculation.

Congressman John B. La rson (CT-01), Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, said:

"The best ideas in Washington often come from outside of Washington. Today, we see the result of one of those ideas. In January JohnMitchell, the former Mayor of South Windsorand an oil dealer, came to me with a problem. The cost of a barrel of petroleum was skyrocketing and local seniorcitizens were being forced to turn over their entire Social Security checks to filltheir home heating oil tanks. He told methat these prices weren't the result of supply and demand, but ratherspeculators in the energy futures market who were unfairly driving up the cost. So we worked together to solve thisproblem. And today, we take the firstmajor step towards remedying that situation.

"I commend all of mycolleagues who have worked hard to bring this legislation to the floor,including Colin Peterson, Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Bart Stupak,Rosa DeLauro and Chris Van Hollen.

"In the past few weeks we have seen the price of a barrel of oilsuddenly drop from about $150 to below $100. This drop wasn't because of any increase in supply or decrease in demand. It was because speculators got nervous. They saw Congress beginning to take a harderline against them and they saw innovative Americans finding ways to reducetheir consumption of oil.

"This is just the beginning. Themarket manipulation that the Bush Administration has turned a blind eye to foryears will be stopped. In so many sectors of our economy - banking, mortgages,energy - Bush and the Republicans took the referee off the field and theAmerican people are suffering because of it. They allowed a few greedyinvestors to run away with our markets. Well, this legislation puts the refereeback on the field.

"This is real reform for thereal people. It puts Main Street - not Wall Street - first."