NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Obama administration proposed new measures Tuesday to limit speculation in the oil markets, seeking to draw a contrast with Republicans who have been calling for more domestic drilling during a time of near record gasoline prices.

The new proposals require oil traders to put up more of their own money for transactions, ask for more money for market enforcement and monitoring activities, and call for higher penalties for market manipulation.

The impact that speculation, or investment money, is having on oil prices is a subject of much debate."None of these will bring gas prices down overnight," Obama said at a White House press. "But they will prevent market manipulation, and help protect consumers."

Many argue that investment money, especially index fund money, islargely to blame for the spike in oil prices seen over the last several years. They say the amount of oil traded in futures contracts greatly exceeds the amount of actual oil available, and that the bets on higher prices made by index funds are a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But others say that if oil prices were artificially high, there would be a surplus of crude accumulating around the world, a situation that has not occurred. They also note that in other commodities in which speculation is rampant, such as natural gas, prices are at near record lows. Simplesupply and demand, they say, are responsible for the high prices.

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http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/17/markets/obama-oil-speculators/index.htm?iid=HP_LN&hpt=hp_t2