Posted on 08/06/2004 3:23:27 PM PDT by ambrose
Aug. 6, 2004, 11:49AM
Bush adding more oil to U.S. petroleum reserve
Reuters News Service
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said today it was adding more oil to the U.S. emergency petroleum reserve, despite record high crude prices and strong oil demand.
The Interior Department said it awarded contracts to ChevronTexaco Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Shell Oil to deliver more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The oil will be delivered over a six-month period beginning on Oct. 1.
The administration is not buying the oil going into the reserve. The crude is coming from energy companies that turn over to the government a portion of the oil they drill on federal leases as royalties, instead of paying cash royalties.
The Bush administration has been criticized by energy experts and some politicians for taking oil off the market to put in the reserve at a time of high fuel prices and strong petroleum demand.
The campaign of Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry said on Friday it supports temporarily stopping oil shipments to the reserve while oil and gasoline prices are high.
"We believe we should suspend the fill of the reserve" at current prices, a Kerry spokeswoman said.
U.S. oil prices topped a record $44 a barrel this week at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Higher energy costs raise expenses for U.S. businesses and cut into the money consumers have to buy goods and services that help the economy grow.
The Bush administration said it was better to have a large stockpile of oil on hand to respond to any major supply disruption and the amount of crude going into the reserve will not have a big effect on prices anyway.
"Filling the reserve to ensure that America has a ready supply of crude to prepare for any major supply disruption is vitally important," said an Energy Department spokeswoman.
"Current deliveries to the SPR are a tiny fraction, only 0.15 percent, of global oil demand, and have very little impact on oil prices," she said.
The Interior Department said it was on track to fill the emergency reserve to its 700-million-barrel capacity by the middle of next year.
The stockpile, created by Congress in the mid 1970s after the Arab oil embargo, currently holds 665 million barrels of crude in underground caverns at four sites in Texas and Louisiana.
It wouldn't earn him any votes.
Then Kerry would flop and say that Bush is playing politics with the SPR for political gain.
Okay. We win by pissing away a chunk of the SPR. Around election time (before, during, or after) the terrorists are very likely to strike. Petroleum infrastructure will be high on the list and when it is damaged, then what? The oil does not magically appear just because GW snaps his fingers (despite what Moore sys). Is winning a battle worth losing the war?
"There are economic consequences as well as a deficit impact for choosing to increase the strategic reserve while supplies are this tight and prices are this high. Gasoline refinement is continuing at summer pace and they haven't started diverting to refining home heating oil in the capacity they typically do by now. This will have an impact this winter as well. Try looking at the issue without any political blinders for a moment."
I am. You aren't.
The primary responsibility of the commander in chief is not to keep oil prices down. It's not to make sure he can keep the public happy by avoiding tough decisions in deference to easy answers. It's not even to make sure we have low unemployment or a robust economy that isn't harmed by increasing our oil stockpiles.
His fundamental job is to ensure the security of the united states. Period. His ultimate concern is that if the phrase "shit happens" comes true, we have the ability to keep the nation going in time of national emergency.
That's it.
The one thing politics has to do with this is that GWB is ignorning political and economic consquences of increasing oil prices in order to do what is best to ensure the security of the united states.
What happens if the IslamoNazis hit a big oil facility BEFORE the election, and we don't have a stocked reserve to put us through the emergency. Then Kerry, the Rats, and the Media, would be slamming push for not having kept an adequate reserve, and no one would challenge Kerry on his earlier call to release the reserve...
we all know what's up. Its Iran. there is either going to be an embargo of Iran, or a military conflict with Iran that will disrupt supplies from the Gulf.
But if Kerry wins - Iran will not be confronted. so why aggravate an economic problem that is hurting Bush in the polls, to prepare for a contingecy right now, that might not materialize unless Bush is re-elected?
Get elected first, then fill the reserve at twice the rate if that's what is needed.
You should know since you seem to be an expert on such things.
we have enough oil in the reserve to cover for that contingency for the next 90 days.
That integrity will serve him well in private life in four months. Utter stupidity.
High oil may be terminal to his public career. Republican party is under attack and he won't defend us. I'm getting damn tired of it.
Sheesh calm down there chicken little.
So you think Bush should play politics with our national security? What point would there be in supporting him if he did that?
What would be utterly stupid would be to put the nation at risk to make a useless gesture that would have no effect on gas prices at the pump. None!
ah yes...the politically expedient wing of the republican party is heard from. Known to attack liberals like kerry and clinton for their political flip flops,but demand their side do the same.
Sorry, if you decide to live from poll to poll and not take in the big picture, I don't think anything I say or the president does is going to help.
At this time...the threat to our country. from without, appears to come from all compass points.
and we are only talkng about 90 days - Bush isn't going to start a war with Iran in the next 90 days.
Making sure the reserve is ful is a no-brainer in this current climate.
The article states that the oil comes from oil companies in lieu of cash payments on leases on federal land.
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