While Republicans attack President Obama on rising gas prices, Minnesota Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken have sought to highlight the role of Wall Street speculators, shifting the focus away from the GOP emphasis on oil drilling. Both U.S. senators, who have taken votes that allow for a full environmental review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, have called attention in the past week to "excessive" oil speculation which they say can inflate the price of fuel. Klobuchar and Franken met Thursday with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler to press for long-stalled rules under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law limiting speculative positions on U.S. oil and gas markets. The meeting followed Klobuchar's move on Tuesday to join a long-standing effort to pass legislation that would put the limits into law. Franken also signed a letter to the CFTC last week urging action to curb oil speculation.
