MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Oil Prices

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Joining us tonight Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Senator, always good to have you with us on the Ed Show. I want you to response Senator to that comment that was made by that analyst that fear in the marketplace.

Is it fear in the marketplace? What can be done to stop this out of control speculation?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, [I] VERMONT: Well Ed, as I`m sure you know, the price of gasoline at the pump has gone up by more than a dollar of galloon in the last five years and yet there is more supply today than there was five years ago and less demand.

So if you had a normal functioning market with supply and demand, the price should go down. What the oil companies always do is if it rains, they raise prices. If it`s snows, they raise prices. If it`s sun day, they raise prices. If it is disturbance any place around the world, they raise prices.

The fact to the matter is ExxonMobil made $9 billion in profits, the first quarter of this year. But the real story is that the oil futures market is not controlled by people who actually use oil, it`s controlled by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and all the Wall Street speculators. And their function Ed, needless to say is to make as much money as they can by speculating.

What we have heard is various estimates as to how much more we are paying
whether it`s 40, 50, 60 cents a galloon of gas because of that speculation,
I don`t know exactly what it is. But there is no question that oil
speculation by Wall Street has driven up oil prices very significantly.

SCHULTZ: Well Senator you introduce a bill on the Senate last year that is similar to the one that failed in Congress in 2008. Would that be a game changer? Would you bill change things?

SANDERS: Look, right now what we have seen in recent years is that the percentage of the oil futures market controlled by Wall Street has (inaudible).

We think that is about 70 to 80 percent of the market now controlled by Wall Street not people like Airlines or a tracking companies or oil fuel dealers who actually use the oil but Wall Street which is speculating on it.

What our legislation does now has 20 co-sponsors in the Senate that`s been introduced in the House. What our legislation does is break up the amount of control that any one company can have. And that would, in my view drive speculation down significantly and result in lower prices at the gas pump.

SCHULTZ: Well, what part the speculation play in the conservative push for domestic oil production? I mean, it`s -- to rather convoluted formula here that we`re seeing unfold?

SANDERS: Well I think you raise a very, very important issue. Ed, you know, for those people say, well look we need to produce more and more oil because the more supply we have, the lower the cost will be for the consumer. Sadly, that is just not the case.

Once again, we have seen in the last five years a dollar increase in a galloon of gas at the pump at the same time, as we have more supply today that we did five years ago in less demand than we have five years ago.So I think, what you have now is two giant entities that are ripping off the consumer and that is the oil companies, ExxonMobil and the others will making huge profits and at the same Wall Street speculators on the oil futures market.

Right now, my target is to break up the amount of oil that anyone entity could hold that would drive down speculation, lower oil prices and gas prices.

SCHULTZ: Finally, any Republicans onboard with you on this, your 20 co-sponsors early on?

SANDERS: Nope. We have 19 Democrats and myself and independent. But I would hope especially as people do more driving during the summer that the pressure builds on congress to do something about this outrageously high gas prices.

SCHULTZ: Yeah. Well, they`re using Iraq to do all of these and what they say the uncertainty in the Middle East, yet we`re pumping more oil than we ever have.

Senator Bernie Sanders, great to have you with us tonight sir, thank you so much.

Yup?

SANDERS: OK.

SCHULTZ: Yes, sir?

SANDERS: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: Yes, sir. Go ahead. Go ahead. What did you want to say?

SANDERS: Well, I was just thinking, somebody should write a book. Somebody should write a book about all the excuses that the oil companies give for raising prices. That would be a funny book.

SCHULTZ: It would be very funny book and they also put a chapter and there, to why BP isn`t paying for the damage that they did in the Gulf, which is another story. We`ll bring you back on.

Thank you Senator. I appreciate your time tonight.

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