WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama, under pressure from high gasoline prices in an election year, will Tuesday unveil a new five-point plan to cut down on fraud and manipulation in the oil market.
The White House said in a statement that Americans needed to know oil markets were not influenced illegally when "instability in the Middle East is contributing to rising global oil prices that impact consumers at the pump."
Officials said the effort would include a request from Congress to fund more surveillance and enforcement staff to monitor oil futures trading at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Obama's effort would also fund technology upgrades to aid oversight and surveillance of the energy market and increase civil and criminal penalties for those found guilty of market manipulation from $1 million to $10 million.
Other steps will include measures to help the CFTC deal with increased price volatility and to prevent excessive market speculation, disruption and volatility.
The president will roll out the plan in an announcement in the White House Rose Garden at 11 am (1500 GMT), the White House said.
Obama is under rising political pressure for more action on high gasoline prices, which while low by some European standards, averaged $3.9 per gallon of regular gasoline Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association.
Republicans say Obama is to blame for high oil prices, demanding more oil and gas drilling in America, and want the president to endorse the blocked Keystone XL pipeline project from Canada to the US Gulf Coast.
"If there's fraud going on, the administration has the tools to stop it," said Brendan Buck, spokesman for John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives.
"The truth is the president's policies are restricting American energy production, and he's looking for a scapegoat. The American people aren't going to buy it."
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