“That speculators have a huge impact on oil and gasoline prices is not news to anyone paying attention to the subject over the years, but it is an aspect that most media outlets rarely mention — even when spiking gasoline prices dominate the news cycle. And legislatively, efforts to bring damaging speculative practices under control have continually stalled in Congress.

Last year, Sen. Sanders introduced a bill titled the “End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act of 2011 (pdf)”, which would force the Chairman of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission ) to impose strict limits on the amount of oil speculators can trade in the commodity and futures markets.  The bill found little traction.” …