May 13th, 2008 . by TexasFred
WASHINGTON (AP) - Amid daily bipartisan sniping over high gas prices, Democrats and Republicans appear to agree on at least one thing: With oil over $120 a barrel, President Bush ought to stop buying crude for the government emergency reserve.
Both the House and Senate are expected to approve, with bipartisan support, legislation Tuesday directing Bush to temporarily halt the shipment of about 70,000 barrels of oil a day to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Bush has refused to do so, arguing that this small amount of oil won’t impact prices and that for security reasons he wants to increase the stockpile to its full capacity of 726 million barrels. It now has about 701 million barrels, equal to nearly two months of oil imports.
Lawmakers’ search for a response to high gasoline and oil prices comes as Bush is preparing later this week to travel to Saudi Arabia where he is expected to try to convince the Saudis to increase oil production. So far, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries have refused to do so, arguing the high price of oil stems from other factors than a shortage of supply.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring up for a vote Tuesday a provision to halt oil shipments to the federal reserve until the end of the year. Senate Republicans said they want shipments halted for six months, but are expected to support the Democratic measure.
The House is taking up a similar provision later in the day that also is expected to get broad support.
By all accounts, the president is standing firm.
Full Story Here:
Lawmakers want to end oil shipments to US reserve
I would have thought that by now, at this late stage of the game, the Repubs and Dems in Washington would have caught on, dealing with George W. Bush, and trying to change his mind about anything, is like dealing with a spoiled 3 year old, once that mind is made up, no one is going to change it, he’s The Decider…
In the last 7 years Bush has done nothing to alleviate the looming energy crisis, now I have to admit, his hands have been tied by a bunch of ‘greenies‘ and global warming nuts, but Clinton did nothing to alleviate this coming crisis during his 8 years in the White House either, and the same goes for Bush 41 and Reagan, and all that have preceded them for the last 50 years that I know of…
Some conspiracy theorists are floating the idea that maybe Bush is tied in with the Saudis and gets an under the table kickback from them for buying their over priced product, maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t, I don’t know and I doubt if I ever will and I am not going to throw accusations out there, especially ones that can’t be backed up and substantiated by fact and not just some theory, but after hearing the report on our local news about this last night, and after hearing the financial and economy people on FOX Business talking about how this could impact the price of gas by actually lowering it by .05 a gallon, well, that may not seem like a lot to Mr. Bush, but he’s not the one that’s having to pay for his gas, we are…
Now I don’t know about you, but a .05 a gallon increase or decrease isn’t going to make or break my personal bank account, but I wouldn’t turn down a decrease, and the economists may be right, a hold on buying oil for the strategic petroleum reserve might very well be a good move, but even if it were the most brilliant business decision ever made, if Bush thinks otherwise, you can forget it, The Decider is not going to change his mind…
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It is not often that I will stand up for bubba Bush..but on this one I will..he is right. And in case of an all out war that reserve is gonna be needed…and the amount that the government is buying is a drop in a tanker to the world supply every day.
Bush tried to get an energy program going..one that would open up drilling in the Gulf and in Alaska..but he also rolled over for the greenies trying to please everyone. We are now severly screwed! I reckon Bush has to shoulder part of the blame but the thing about leadership is that one cannot lead people that refused to be led. The left wing has convinced a majority of the public that “big Oil” are the bad guys and that Bush is in bed with big oil..and I have an idea that it is gonna get a lot worse before it gets better..if it ever does. You might be saying a drawout farewell to a great republic as it is taken over by socialists supported by conglomerates who could really give a damn as long as there is a profit to be made and banked in the Caymans or with the Swiss gnomes.
You and I are old men who can fight the changes coming best with words..but I am still buying lead.
Well Guy, it’s only a 2 month reserve at best, and in a case of all out war it won’t last that long…
Our only solution is drilling ANWR, off the east coast, west coast and right there off of the waters in Florida…
And the ‘greenies’ will be having fits…
If Middle east oil is $120+ a barrel then Home drilled US oil could easily be had at $80. If 60% of our oil is imported then if we cut that by 10% we pump here that would reduce oil to %116. If we can cut 20% it would cut oil to $112. This would translate to better then a 7% savings. That is a quarter a gallon at the pump.
We need to stop farting around and start pumping oil. If you want the price to drop we have to start supplying our own. Simple economics escapes the average elected official they can only do the blame game.
In the long run we are gonna have to have another source of energy or civilization as we know it will crumble around our ears and people will be killing each other over enough gasoline/diesel to run a farm tractor.
But then I reckon humans survived for a million years without burning gasoline/diesel and it may well be that some will have to smell mule farts as the plow the fields once again.
But I do have some..but not all THAT much..in human ingenuity and figure that when it is needed and cost effective that another source of energy will pop up out of nowhere..
or, in about 2,000 years historians..if humans last that long..will look back at the 150 years of 1900-2050 as a brief spurt in technological growth brought on by the use of a non-renewable energy source and then about 500 years of “dark ages” when civilization collapsed..
but nature will prevail..she always does.
I never cease to be amazed at our politicians. They expect the people to tighten our belts no matter what, but they can’t tighten the Federal budget one penny. If all these State and Federal taxes were stopped, it would NOT hurt the Federal budget, and it would greatly help many Americans. The more the government gets, the more it wants. It’s like the bottomless pit, it cares nothing for the hard working American feeding it, only that it gets MORE, and MORE, and MORE. Throw all the bums out.
If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Bil Clinton release some of the strategic reserves back in the 90’s to curb increasing prices of oil?
I don’t know if the stratigic reserve is as necessary as it once was now that the military has turned to coal gasification for fuel.
The 90’s pretty much destroyed the oil industry in the 90’s where oil companies had to merge or die. But $10 barrels would do that. In No Dak Texaco sold out and left. It didn’t help when clinton put off limits a good chunk of coal forever.
President Bush did try a few things, unfortunately ANWAR didn’t get started and unfortunately pushed moonshine, I mean ethanol.
IF we were smart we’d sell California back to Mexico for oil, as long as they keep the illegal aliens and the liberals.