Politics & Power Quote by Peter DeFazio

“First off” is a tell: DeFazio isn’t delivering a neutral observation, he’s teeing up an argument like a prosecutor laying out counts. The line frames crude oil as the outlier in a country that regulates almost everything that can hurt you. That contrast is the rhetorical engine. By declaring oil “unlike every other commodity,” he invites the listener to feel the imbalance before he even names the consequences: price spikes, market gamesmanship, and consumers paying for volatility they didn’t create.

The strategic word is “virtually.” It’s both a shield and a weapon. Shield, because the oil market is not literally lawless; there are reporting requirements, antitrust tools, and derivatives oversight in certain lanes. Weapon, because “virtually unregulated” captures the lived experience of watching gas prices whip around while accountability feels abstract, distant, or captured. It’s calibrated indignation: specific enough to sound informed, broad enough to justify sweeping reform.

Context matters. DeFazio’s career sits in the long hangover of deregulation politics, especially post-1990s financialization of commodities and the recurring suspicion that speculation amplifies pain at the pump. The subtext is a challenge to the default American story that markets are efficient if left alone. He’s implying that the “free” in “free market” is doing a lot of work for the industry and not much for the public.

It’s also a populist move without populist theatrics: identify a rigged exception, then make regulation sound like restoring normal rules, not expanding government.