Reports of CFTC’s Move to Rescind an Enforcement Referral Into Billions of Dollars in Suspicious Oil Trades Requires Immediate Meeting Of Key Energy Advisory Committee
WASHINGTON — Public Citizen today called on Michael Selig, Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to immediately schedule a public meeting of a key Congressionally-mandated energy advisory committee to discuss numerous pressing matters, including reports that a CFTC official asked market trading analysts to rescind the referral they sent to the enforcement division of the commission about billions of dollars of suspicious oil trades tied to a social media post by President Donald Jr. Trump. In a letter to the chairman, Public Citizen called on the Commission to hold the meetings required by law of the Energy & Environmental Advisory Committee, established by Congress by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The committee hasn’t met since Selig became Chairman in 2025.
In response, Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program and a member of the Commission’s Energy & Environmental Advisory Committee for more than 15 years, issued the following statement:
“Congress requires the CFTC to hold public meetings of its energy advisory committee to ensure that consumer and other perspectives on energy markets are heard. War related upheaval of energy markets is exposing America’s working families to an energy affordability crisis, and reports that billions of dollars in suspicious oil trades aren’t being investigated require an immediate public meeting of the energy advisory committee.
“In light of the CFTC’s decision to retract an analysis of suspicious trading following a social media post by the President, the committee must reconvene to understand why the report was not released. Protecting commodity markets from anticompetitive behavior must be a vital role for the CFTC and allegedly suppressing a key analysis of how these suspicious trades are handled violates the public’s trust.”
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