Don’t fill it up
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- May
- 12
U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, was at a Mobil gas station in Yorktown Heights today to talk about how he would lower the price of gas at the pump by 24 cents a gallon.
Hall and 93 other Congress members have urged President Bush to stop buying oil to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the rest of 2008 or until the price of oil remains under $50 per barrel for three months.
“President Bush is violating one of the most fundamental rules of the market: buy low and sell high,” Hall said. “Right now he’s doing the opposite at the expense of taxpayers and to the detriment of the American driver.”
The President has the authority to authorize a drawdown of the petroleum reserve through an oil release or oil swap in a time of crisis. But instead of releasing oil from the reserve into the market, Bush is taking 70,000 barrels of oil every day and putting it into the reserve, Hall said.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced that they plan to increase that rate to 76,000 barrels per day before the end of the summer. At present, the reserve is 97 percent full, containing 700 million barrels of oil.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton released 30 million barrels of oil from the reserve, Hall said. Within several days, crude oil had fallen by $6, home heating oil was down 10 cents on the wholesale market, and wholesale gasoline was down 14 cents, Hall said.
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on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 3:54 pm by Susan Elan.
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Hall’s ignorance and political grandstanding is disgusting. The SPR is not to be used for economic concerns. It is a STRATEGIC reserve to be used only to mitigate supply disruptions. Oil can only be released in compliance with federal law—the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. Releases are for emergencies, not high prices. Oil was released from it during Operation Desert Storm (Bush 41) and Hurricane Katrina (Bush 43).
As for continued purchases, it was CONGRESS that authorized the SPR to buy oil until it reached 1 billion barrels. At only 727 million barrels now, it still has a way to go. Of course, Hall can work with Congress to change that, but the President is following the law.
Hall should use some of that Moveon.Org and George Soros money to buy a clue.
Sara is right. Hall isn’t right. Not by any definition of of the word “right” is Hall correct.
At the very least, we should stop trying to fill the SPR at the rate of 70,000 barrels per day, especially at $120 a barrel. It’s not only increasing demand, but pissing away $8.4M per day, most of which money is ending up in the pockets of OPEC.
I don’t know if I ‘d go as far as the Cato Institute (not exactly a bunch of leftie loonies) and call for the abolishment of the SPR, which would certainly ease demand, but a suspension of purchases for the SPR will definitely decrease demand (driving down prices) and also has the benefit of not costing anything to do.
If we insist that Bush is following the law, the more cynical among us might point out that there’s a first time for everything. At the least, it’s very convenient for Bandar and the boys over there in Qatar and Saudi Arabia that George is so law-abiding in this case.
Hall forgot to mention that the reprieve from higher gas prices by releasing the reserves lasts around 6 days, then goes back up again. I’m sure this wasn’t an oversight.