Higher Gas Prices and Koch Industries

Once again, gasoline prices are going through the roof. And once again, you’ll hear vague rumblings about “oil speculators” being responsible.

If you’re like me, you probably have no idea who these oil speculators are, what they’re doing to make such huge profits from higher oil prices (without producing anything themselves), and why they keep getting away with it. (As well as “Hey, how can I get in on this?”)

Would you believe, Koch Industries is one of the largest oil speculators. Why is this not surprising?

Needless to say Koch Industries doesn’t extract any oil. But they’re major players in shipping crude oil, refining and distributing it. With such control over every stage of the market, they have excellent information for speculating on the future price.

When it comes to parlaying their insider knowledge into complicated convoluted financial schemes, Koch Industries has picked up where Enron left off.

In 2008, Koch Industries practiced “contango” market manipulation. That’s the practice of buying and storing huge quantities of a commodity in order to create a fake “shortage.” In 2008 Koch Industries leased four supertankers for holding/hording oil off the U.S. Gulf coast, in anticipation of higher prices.

As far as why they’re able to keep getting away with this: the Koch Brothers have stacked Congress with their own private army of prostitutes (formerly known as Republicans) to make sure Koch Industries can keep doing what it wants when it wants.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says oil speculation is at a record high level right now; and this speculation is the cause of these skyrocketing gas prices you’re seeing. And by a sheer coincidence, Congressional Republicans keep trying to eliminate funding for the CFTC in order to protect their pimps.

In another wacky coincidence, Koch Industries lobbied frantically against last year’s financial reform bill because of certain provisions regarding transparency in the energy trading market.

If gas prices keep going up and up this summer, don’t blame it on them treehuggers. Blame it on the Kochsuckers.