New Action: Tell Your Senators to Support the “Stop Excessive Oil Speculation Act”
July 16, 2008
New Action: Tell Your Senators to Support the “Stop Excessive Oil Speculation Act”
‘STOP OIL SPECULATION NOW’ COALITION CALLS FOR ACTION TO STOP RECORD ENERGY PRICE INCREASES
July 11, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Elizabeth Merida
202-626-4205
Victoria Day
202-626-4141
‘STOP OIL SPECULATION NOW’ COALITION CALLS FOR ACTION TO STOP RECORD ENERGY PRICE INCREASES
WASHINGTON, July 11, 2008 – Record-high oil prices are hurting American families
and damaging our nation’s economy. In response to this growing crisis, 38 organizations
have joined together to push for effective short-, mid- and long-term solutions to help
materially reduce unnecessarily high energy prices.
“This country is experiencing its worst energy crisis ever, driven by a confluence
of factors, including a weak U.S. dollar, geopolitical tensions, limited supplies, strong
global demand and the lack of a cohesive and comprehensive national energy policy,”
ATA President and CEO James C. May said, speaking on behalf of all of the coalition
members. “This crisis deserves the full attention of Congress – now – not next week, next
month or next year. It is too important to wait. We believe that the fastest way to get oil
prices under control in the short term is by reducing reckless and unfair speculation in the
futures markets while, at the same time, enacting measures for the mid and long term to
expand oil supplies, enhance efforts to advance alternative and renewable energy sources
and improve energy conservation across the board.”
“Without question, energy futures markets, when functioning with proper
oversight, serve a useful purpose, especially to bona fide hedgers. But in today’s distorted
market, rampant oil speculation is devastating both businesses and consumers,” the
coalition asserts. “Reasonable financial controls and transparency, which have been
eliminated at the urging of the big speculation market players, need to be reestablished,”
said May.
“Numerous experts from around the world peg the impact of oil speculation at
$20 to $60 per barrel. That translates into between $0.48 and $1.43 at the gas pump. In
recent months, the number of ‘paper barrels’ traded by speculators has risen dramatically,
peaking at 22 times the physical market on June 6, when crude oil shot up $11 in one
session. Interestingly too, that spike came immediately on the heels of a prediction of
$150 per barrel oil by one of the speculators with the most to gain by the increase.”
“Oil speculation has upset the traditional balance between supply and demand,”
said Michael W. Masters, short equity hedge fund portfolio manager and founder of
Masters Capital Management, LLC. “If Congress would pass meaningful speculation
reform, oil prices would drop significantly within a matter of days or weeks.”
The Stop Oil Speculation Now coalition, in addition to its mid- and long-term supply
and conservation elements, is calling for Congress to push for lower prices immediately
by:
• Strengthening regulations weakened by the Enron Loophole and other loopholes
• Limiting the amount of oil that individuals or groups can trade speculatively in
the energy futures markets while unfairly driving up prices
• Requiring reporting by unregulated, secret markets like the swaps market: All
markets should have basic regulations that report the amount of oil people are
buying, no matter who they are or where they reside
• Make foreign traders follow U.S. rules and laws, just like everyone else who does
business in the United States
“This campaign will result in one million messages being sent to Congress in just the
last three days by concerned citizens mobilized by the SOS Coalition,” said May. “This
movement is just beginning to grow and we predict it will not stop until Congress acts.”
The Stop Oil Speculation Now coalition is a diverse and growing organization of
industries, businesses, labor groups and ultimately concerned citizens united in support of
responsible energy policies and prices.
The coalition includes:
Members of the Stop Oil Speculation Now Coalition ABX Air, Inc.; Agricultural
Retailers Association; Air Carrier Association of America; Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association; Air Line Pilots Association, International; AirTran Airways; Air Transport
Association; Alaska Airlines, Inc.; American Airlines, Inc.; American Association of
Airport Executives; American Bus Association; American Trucking Associations;
Association of Corporate Travel Executives; ASTAR Air Cargo, Inc.; Atlas Air, Inc.;
Cargo Airline Association; Continental Airlines, Inc.; Delta Air Lines, Inc.; Evergreen
International Airlines, Inc.; Federal Express Corporation; Frontier Airlines, Inc.; Gasoline
& Automotive Service Dealers of America; Hawaiian Airlines; JetBlue Airways Corp.;
Midwest Airlines; National Business Travel Association; National School Transportation
Association; Northwest Airlines, Inc.; Petroleum Marketers Association of America;
Regional Airline Association; Southwest Airlines Co.; Spirit Airlines, Inc.;
TripplerTravel.com; International Brotherhood of Teamsters; United Airlines, Inc.;
United Motorcoach Association; UPS Airlines; and US Airways, Inc.
To learn more about oil speculation and its effects on America’s economy, or to tell your
member of Congress now that you demand action, now, please visit www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com
Mozilla FireFox 3 Download Day - Help Set a New World Record
June 17, 2008
Today marks the release day of Mozilla’s Firefox 3 Browser. Help Mozilla set a new World Record for the most downloads in a 24 Hour Period.
Check out the pledge map here to see the almost 2 million pledges so far!
Microsoft Announces Another Proposal to Yahoo for Transactions not Acquisition
May 18, 2008
Microsoft announced Sunday afternoon it has issued another proposal to Yahoo that calls for a transaction with Yahoo, but would not involve the acquisition of all of Yahoo’s assets.
The announcement comes just days after billionaire investor Carl Icahn launched a proxy fight to unseat Yahoo’s current board at the Internet search pioneer’s upcoming July 3 annual shareholders meeting. Read more
MySpace Wins $234 Million Anti Spam Judgement
May 14, 2008
The social-networking site MySpace has won a $234 million antispam judgment, according to the Associated Press. OUCH
On the losing side of the award–believed to be the largest ever under the 2003 Can-Spam Act–were defendants Walter Rines and Sanford Wallace, the so-called spam king. MySpace won the case against Wallace after he failed numerous times to turn over documents or even to show up for court. Read more
New Website Magazine Issue 11 Available Now
May 8, 2008
The new issue Number 11 of Website Magazine is available online now and will be headed to your mailboxes soon.
Inside this feature packed issue are articles on: The Mobile Web, Web 3.0, Anatomy of a Datacenter, Podcasting with Audacity, Effective Press Releases and so much more. Read more
Mozilla Firefox Browser Market Share Rising Higher in Europe
April 28, 2008
According to Xiti web metrics company the open source Firefox web browser has climbed to 29 percent of the European market share. The steady increase in popularity marks a huge accomplishment.
Users in Andorra, Finland, Poland and Slovenia are using Firefox on weekends, by choice, exceeding 30 percent market share on average. Read more
Spambot Cracks Live Hotmail CAPTCHA
April 15, 2008
From Ars Technica:
Internet users are quite familiar with the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA), a quick method that verifies whether or not the user trying to sign up is a person or a bot. A picture with swirled, mangled, or otherwise distorted characters is displayed and the user then types in the correct letters or numbers. Read more
ADVISE YOUR SENATOR NOW: OPPOSE THE SNOWE BILL!
March 11, 2008
From The ICA - Internet Commerce Association
Submitted by Philip Corwin of the ICA on Sat, 03/08/2008 - 16:27.
It is very important that every U.S.-resident ICA member as well as other domainers write to their U.S. Senators and advise them of the serious concerns raised by Sen. Snowe’s “anti-phishing” bill. Because it has been labeled consumer-friendly legislation aimed at stopping a serious consumer scam, your Senators may be inclined to support it unless they learn that it is not as advertised –and that their constituents have major concerns about it. Constituents are voters, and elected officials care about what they think.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Available for Readiness Testing
March 9, 2008
The first beta version of Internet Explorer 8 is now available. The look and feel of the browser will remain familiar to those accustomed to IE7. The Links bar is now the Favorites bar, where, when enabled, the history and bookmark buttons will be located. The address bar is also slightly different, hiliting the last two parts of domain names. Read more
