Re: "Here's your reply to the lefties regarding the SPR: the Federal government doesn't pay cash for the oil that goes into the SPR. The oil is delivered to the SPR by Chevron Corp. as payment for some large oil leases. So when oil prices go up, there is no budgetary impact on the Feds because no cash is paid for the oil. This is one case where the Feds actually made a smart move that saves the taxpayers money."
Never heard this before... Mind if I ask for a source?
I just hope it is true...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113.html
The SPR will be filled in a deliberate and cost-effective manner. This will be done principally through royalty-in-kind transfers to be implemented by the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve
On August 17, 2005, the SPR reached its goal of 700 million barrels (111,000,000 m³), or about 96% of its now-increased 727 million barrel capacity. Approximately 60% of the crude oil in the reserve is the less desirable sour (high sulfur content) variety. The oil delivered to the reserve is "royalty-in-kind" oil—royalties owed to the U.S. government by operators who acquire leases on the federally-owned Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. These royalties were previously collected as cash, but in 1998 the government began testing the effectiveness of collecting royalties "in kind" - or in other words, acquiring the crude oil itself. This mechanism was adopted when refilling the SPR began, and once refilling is completed, future royalties will be paid into the Federal treasury.
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We should all thank our lucky stars that Bush was elected instead of Kerry, who would undoubtedly have bowed to political pressure to drain the SPR in an effort to keep gasoline prices below $2.00 per gallon, which would have left us shockingly vulnerable to this hurricaine's disruption of oil supplies.
Regarding the SPR and Chevron, I read that somewhere on the internet last year when oil was spiking up on price manipulation just before the election. It was probably either on MSN Investor or Bloomberg.com. This was a news article talking about how the SPR was still being filled and what the decision criteria are for an oil release from the SPR. The article gave some background on the SPR and said the oil was delivered to the SPR by Chevron as payment for oil leases. I may have it saved on my old computer, but you might try a Google search on Chevron and Strategic Petroleum Reserve (...a suggestion at the risk of belaboring the obvious....lol).