Nymex Chairman Daniel Rappaport last week sent a letter to Rep.Larry Combest, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture,raising concern over a subsection of H.R. 4541, the “CommodityFutures Modernization Act of 2000,” which would exempt electronicenergy derivatives trading from regulatory oversight.

Rappaport said his primary concern was that the provisions inthe bill would “likely lead to a migration of energy trading tounregulated markets, thus depriving policy-makers, regulators, andthe public of currently available information on marketparticipation, concentration, and financial performance,

“Further, by creating and limiting the energy regulatoryexclusion to an electronic system, the legislation has eliminatedthe ability of existing open outcry systems to compete with theunregulated electronic systems,” he said.ÿ “In essence, H.R. 4541has not only deregulated the energy markets, but has “legislated”the winning market system.”

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.