Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said last week that there was general consensus among regulators and various players in the energy futures market that position limits should be imposed to avoid concentration of the market in the hands of a few traders.

The consensus comes after the CFTC conducted three hearings—two in late July and the third on Aug. 5, on whether and how the federal energy regulator should improve market transparency and efficiency and on how to stamp out excessive speculation.

Gensler said position limits were already in place in the agricultural market and should now be extended to the energy markets to protect the consumer who have had to deal with the consequences of the volatility in the prices of oil and natural gas.

Because of the highly connected network between the large refining center on the Gulf Coast and other areas of the United States, hurricane damage to electricity supplies or to multiple Gulf Coast refineries can give rise to tight product supplies, price increases, and even shortages far away from the hurricane damage, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration.

The largest refining center is along the Texas and Louisiana coasts, and it is also the refinery concentration most affected by hurricanes, the report states.

At 7.4 million bpd, these coastal refineries represent 42 percent of the nation’s refining capacity and almost 90 percent of the refining capacity in Petroleum Administration for Defense District 3. California and Washington refineries represent about 15 percent of national capacity, while the eastern-Midwest refining center accounts for about 13 percent, and East Coast refineries about 9 percent, according to the EIA.