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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (744024)	6/28/2006 5:58:16 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 769670

More advantages to laissez-faire capitalism........... BP Plc drove up the price of propane used to heat homes and businesses in the northeastern U.S. in February 2004 and tried to do the same in April 2003, according to the U.S. Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The commission filed suit today in federal court alleging BP Products North America, a subsidiary of London-based BP, cornered the propane market with the aim of driving up prices to gain at least $20 million in profit for the company. Former BP trader Dennis Abbott pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a separate court filing today by the Justice Department. ``Cornering a commodity market is more than a threat to market integrity,'' Gregory Mocek, director of enforcement for the commission, said in a statement. ``It is an illegal activity that could have repercussions for commercial market participants as well as retail consumers around this country.'' BP is one of several large oil companies facing increasing scrutiny from the government as energy prices rose during the last year. By purchasing ``enormous quantities'' of propane, BP caused the price to increase to more than 90 cents a gallon on Feb. 27, 2004, ``a price that would not otherwise have been reached under the normal pressures of supply and demand,'' the commission said in a statement. The company at one point owned over 88 percent of all ``TET'' propane, fuel that can be delivered anywhere on the Texas Eastern pipeline system owned by Houston-based TEPPCO Partners LP.