Attack on Oil Speculators

I love to start the day with a chuckle.  The news reports of the hearing Monday before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations are a hoot. Dingell (D-Mich) and others want to attack "speculators" in the oil futures market as the cause of high gas prices.  Desperate divert blame from themselves in Congress (which has retarded oil production in the United States and subsidized a boondoggle in ethanol among other mistakes), they have chosen to make a target out of speculators.  But the inevitable happened.  The testimony devolved into a hilarious debate over who were speculators and who were not -- members of Congress could not identify the target.  All agreed that speculators did not include those who wanted to take delivery of the underlying commodity, oil.  But what about hedgers who did not use oil but worry about oil prices (an exporter or importer who hedges in oil futures so as to dampened price effects of transportation costs, borne by others but that effect the price of his product)?  They seem harmless.  Do we include those who short as well as those who are long?  Short sellers bring oil prices down.  Do we include those traders that hold "neutral positions", swaps traders, an even mix of long and short positions.  Do we include "market makers" who post bids on both sides?  Who are the bad one?  I guess I am.  I hold UNG, an EFT in natural gas.  I do not want to take delivery of the gas; I do use some gas in our stove, however.  Am I to blame for the price rise in natural gas?  So sorry.  The holding has not fully offset my loses in GM, however. Who did I get to blame for that?  We need hearings.