Posted on 05/17/2008 12:25:14 PM PDT by Libloather
US Congress moves to bring down oil prices
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, May 14: The US Congress has voted overwhelmingly to prevent further rise in oil prices, ordering the government to stop depositing oil in a national reserve.
The Senate voted 97 to 1 on Tuesday to stop putting 70,000 barrels of oil a day in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve through the remainder of this year.
The House of Representatives later approved a similar bill by a 385 to 25 vote.
The move aims at bringing down the price by forcing more oil into the market. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure could cause the prices to drop by 5 to 24 cents a gallon.
The White House strongly resisted the move, saying that it would have only a modest impact on the price while create security and market risks. National reserves guard against future supply disruptions. However, a White House spokesman told journalists that despite his reservations, President George W. Bush would not veto the bill.
In both the chambers, the Republicans also voted en masse for the measure, ignoring pleas from their own administration not to do so.
Political analysts noted that the public pressure is forcing politicians to take some action to bring down oil prices.
They noted that a White House veto in an election year could badly hurt the Republican Party, already criticised for leading America to an un-winnable war in Iraq.
Similarly, the lawmakers realise that the price hike has badly hurt their constituents, particularly those from lower and middle income American families.
President Bush, who no more has to run for an office, is urging consumers to change their habits if they want to bring down the gas prices.
“The truth of the matter is that in order for there to be a substantial change either the consumers have to change their habits -- which we’re encouraging through alternative tax of automobiles -- or there has to be an increase of supply,” he said in a recent interview.
Republican lawmakers have proposed investment in alternative energy as a long-term solution to the oil crisis.
The Democrats plan to present their own energy plan within weeks, which calls for new taxes on oil company profits to pay for alternative energy investment.
But the Republicans strongly oppose new taxes and can prevent its passage.
Some lawmakers -- both from Republican and Democratic parties -- have proposed reining in speculation in the oil markets, noting that speculative sales drive the prices up.
But Senate majority leader Harry Reid opposes the move.
A group of Democratic senators also sought to put pressure on Saudi Arabia. They are urging the kingdom to increase its oil production or face the possibility of the Congress blocking a pending arms deal.
Drilling does the same thing.
Unreal.
Our supposed leaders are out of touch with reality.
Politicians think we’re stupid. And apparently enough of us to keep them in office are.
Right on both counts.
We can all thank the extreme enviro’s for this one. No new refinery’s for 20+ years and no drilling anywhere. If we had a good alternative, this wouldn’t be a problem. A good alternative is probably years down the road, if that, it could be decades away. And there scare tactics of we are running out of oil is nuts. What I’ve seen of the other alternative energy sources, there are draw backs with everyone of them.
There are a few libs at work that said 10 years ago they wanted gas to be more the $5/gal. They claimed it would force us off oil and to environmentally friendly sources of fuels. As gas hits $4 and no alternative in sight.... they are starting to panic a bit. Their little idealistic world is starting to crumble. They should be in full blown hysteria if the dems control both houses and the presidency and things are still oil centric.
It is impossible to conserve at a higher rate than the growing number of people using oil products. That leaves one and only one solution. DRILL AND PUMP MORE OIL AND BUILD REFINERIES TO PROCESS IT! I doubt the dems heard my yelling.
Anybody who uses ANWAR instead of ANWR has not done the homework.
That is where I stopped reading.
Someone should ask Pelogosi, "Exactly where is our Strategic Petroleum Reserve located?"
And what happened to “building oil refineries” on all those military bases that were closed a few years ago.....enquiring minds seek answers.....
A few thousand barrels a day will bring prices down 25 cents but drilling 20 million barrels in the Alaska Desert will only drop it a penny in ten years.
If you like $4/gal, Thank Congress in November.
Simple, Liberalism hard at work.
I think we were lied to.... again.
$200 dollar oil also brings China’s potential ugliness as a world power to a screeching crawl. It’s a lot more beneficial to the world to curtail China’s might thru market forces on it’s blood (oil) supply.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Thank you Democrat Congress. No wonder their approval rating is the lowest in history. Last I checked they were hovering at around 9 percent.
The headline here is a complete lie. Nothing the Congress has done here will do anything to bring down Oil prices. In fact, even if you do the whole Democrat Energy plan the price of Oil will go UP, not down, since it will put additional barriers to development of US Energy resources and make us even more dependent on imported oil
Americans are so GD stupid. They suffer from memory loss too.
No kidding. Like changing their voting patterns
Not true. http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/
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