High Gas Prices? Must Be Evil Corporations

Not just any task force, mind you, but one whose premise is not that the U.S. government's energy policy has stifled domestic supply of oil and contributed to rising prices. Oh, no, that would be too easy of an explanation. Turns out the Obama administration believes there's a worldwide corporate conspiracy by "speculators" and "oil futures traders" to drive prices higher.

The group, which will be part of the administration’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, will focus on any manipulation of oil and gas prices, collusion, fraud, or other violations of state and federal laws, [Eric] Holder said in a memo.

They also talked about “areas that require additional exploration, including whether there is any evidence of unlawful price manipulation at the supplier level or higher,” Holder said.

So there you have it. Despite encouraging other countries to drill domestically in order to increase their own supplies, Obama thinks America's gas woes must be the result of illegal corporate market manipulation.