justice department task force and what they see as policy that hinders oil production and oil exploration. mccom says over the past two years, the 5d managers administration has declared what can only be described as a warrant on american energy, as a result thousands have lost jobs while companies are forced to move operations overseas, that he says must end. republicans say high gas prices are the result of administration polices that stifle domestic drilling, partly as a result of new restrictions placed after the off shore disaster of the bp oil spill last year. jenna. jenna: steve centanni, live for us in d.c., thanks. jon: ready for a little good weather news in we haven t news? rainy weather across texas bringing welcome relief to crews fighting the massive wildfires but flames are still burning. gregg: there was a little good news. unfortunately it didn t last long, the rain was light, the moist air is about to
companies pushing up prices, it is speculators? speculators are a convenient villain. the government looked into this. speculators are a normal part of the economy. they buy stuff based on whether they think the price will be higher or lower in the future. we all want somebody to blame for the oil prices. we never say let s blame ourselves because we are basically addicted to oil, and we find somebody else to blame. you can blame speculators, because you can t find them. for the most part, they are not doing anything illegal. what is the justice department task force be look into? what might they find? do they have power to stop what is happening? this task force, i think is a yawner. this is for obama while he is campaigning, i am aware of your pain and i set up the task force. my prediction is a year from now, they will have taken no significant actions and not altered the price of gas at all.
sector from growing and consumers seem to have a limit to patience regarding gas prices and domestic drilling, a poll finds if gas reaches, $7 a gallon. 70% of americans would demand more u.s. oil drilling. 23% say they would expect the environmental standards or green standards to prevent more drilling and would adapt to the higher prices and also in that poll, democrats are almost three times as likely as republican to learn to accept higher prices, kelly. kelly: molly henneberg, thank you for the report from d.c. jamie: and president obama also establishing a justice department task force that is charged with investigating potential price gouging in the oil markets. they re already raising questions whether the doj can actually do anything to help all the consumers that are trying to fill their tanks. let s debate it. syndicated columnist and fox news contributor cal thomas joining us and alan colmes.
shepard: the president says he wants to make sure nobody is ripping you off at the gas pump. to the feds are putting together a task force to look for possible fraud in the oil markets. the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is now $3.84, so says aaa or so reports aaa. that s almost up a dollar since last year. president obama is saying he wants to make sure the price hikes are will he jdimytai legi. this is about more than just price gouging, right, wendell? well, you are right, shepard, a justice department task force will look for evidence that oil and gas prices are being manipulated through fraud or collusion in both the retail and wholesale levels. also take a look at the impact speculators and index traders are having on oil prices. it s the kind of scrutiny of the energy industry that democrats wanted and couldn t get in the bush administration. the attorney general is putting together a team whose
matter. you have gentlemen who have spent their lives working on these issues, they know them well. these are highly complicated questions. the last thing i want is unintended consequences, no matter how well intended, with too big to fail, consumer protection, dealing with exotic instruments, all of the other matters, corporate governance issues, but we think we re on the right track, and the public really wants us to address these issues, and they deserve an answer. jim cramer. senator, i totally agree with you. there s much that s good here. i think we could really make good changes. sarbanes-oxley was a success. and one of the reasons why it was, if not good for small companies but certainly for big companies, is that the justice department had a task force which was simultaneously explaining a, going after the ne er-do-wells, enron, where does the justice department task force, now that we have the lehman report which shows repeated violations of sarbanes-oxley? i suspect