Scathing

The spotlight on commodity index funds and their impact on markets continues to burn brightly following a scathing report from Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), acting ranking minority member. The report claims that commodity index traders, in the aggregate, have made such large purchases on the Chicago wheat futures market that they “have pushed up futures prices, disrupted the normal relationship between futures prices and cash prices for wheat, and caused farmers, grain elevators, grain processors, consumers and others to experience significant unwarranted costs and price risks.”

Colorado regulators last week adopted the most comprehensive state oil and natural gas drilling regulations in the nation. The unanimous vote drew scathing criticism from the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA) and several state Republican lawmakers.

Colorado regulators Wednesday adopted the most comprehensive state oil and natural gas drilling regulations in the nation. The unanimous vote drew scathing criticism from the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA) and several state Republican lawmakers.

Consumer Reports has given deregulation, not just of energy but also four other industries, a scathing rebuke in a new report titled “Deregulated.” While consumers have made some gains under deregulation, Consumer Reports said, on balance they’ve lost ground. “Service has typically deteriorated. Consumer rights have sometimes suffered. Claimed price cuts are often not all they seem. And when free markets have gone bad, deregulated industries have seen no contradiction in getting multi billion-dollar government bailouts,” the study concluded after examining the results of deregulation on five industries that directly impact consumers — airlines, telephone, cable TV, banking and electricity.

Southern LNG Inc. has launched a scathing denial of theallegations that it conducted an open season in secret in order toaward to an affiliate all the teminalling capacity in its liquefiednatural gas (LNG) facilities on Elba Island in Georgia. The companyis seeking to reactivate the facilities, which have been dormantsince the early 1980s.

Southern LNG Inc. last week launched a scathing denial of theallegations that it conducted an open season in secret in order toaward to an affiliate all the teminalling capacity in its liquefiednatural gas (LNG) facilities on Elba Island in Georgia. The companyis seeking to reactivate the facilities, which have been dormantsince the early 1980s.