Amaranth hangover: more energy regs?(Trendlines)

A Senate committee led by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) issued a report in July claiming that excessive speculation by hedge fund Amaranth Advisors caused wild price swings in natural gas markets in 2006 and "socked consumers with higher prices."

The report, which was the result of a nine-month study by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, notes that the industry regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), was hamstrung in monitoring the activity of Amaranth because once the fund reached speculative trading limits on the regulated New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) Natural Gas markets, it moved positions to ICE's Natural Gas swaps markets, where …