Commercial energy firms have asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) how they can receive relief from new OTC derivatives regulations. The new rules, part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, would enact a number of measures governing off-exchange derivatives trading.

Commenting through the Working Group of Commercial Energy Firms in a letter signed by R. Michael Sweeney Jr., with Hunton & Williams LLP, the energy firms requested either:

• "a blanket order pursuant to Section 723(c)(2) of the Act grandfathering all persons that transact, operate, or otherwise rely on the provisions of CEA Section 2(h) (as in existence on the day before the Enactment Date), as well as all transactions subject to this provision of the CEA, for a one year period commencing on the Effective Date or for a period deemed appropriate by the Commission; or
• "formal guidance as soon as practicable regarding the procedural and substantive requirements for petitions submitted pursuant to Section 723(c)(1) of the Act."

The new legislation allows the CFTC to consider such requests for relief on a case-by-case basis. The regulator is accepting petitions until Sept. 20.

• Commodities Futures Trading Commission -Petitions under Section 723(c) of Dodd-Frank (pdf)

• Top 10 largest gold reserves by country
• Traders wait as S&P hovers below short-term high
• Argentinean corn crop gets hammered
• Gold falls after better than expected jobs report
• Stock indexes struggles between support, resistance
• U.S. dollar quiet -- the calm before the storm?
• Oil treating Iranian threats as “Boy who cried wolf”