PMAA AND NEFI URGE CFTC TO HOLD ENERGY COMMITTEE MEETING

On April 9, 2009, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America and New England Fuel Institute sent a letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner Bart Chilton urging him to hold an Energy Markets Advisory Committee (EMAC) meeting in the coming weeks to review the legislative and regulatory proposals that would effectively regulate over-the-counter (OTC) energy derivatives.  Commissioner Chilton was appointed to serve as chairman of EMAC by CFTC Acting Chairman Michael Dunn earlier this year. 

PMAA treasurer Sean Cota is the only heating oil marketer on the panel comprised of Wall Street players including executives from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan. Sean has represented the industry well by highlighting the lack of oversight in the OTC commodity markets.  In its only meeting last year, Cota told the panel that heating oil and motor fuel prices skyrocketed not because of supply constraints or a weakening dollar, but because the amount of investment money flowing into energy commodity markets and the lack of federal government oversight.