US:Oil Pending Strategic Reserve Releasegreenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread |
Cited under the Fair Use Act: for educational and research purposes.
Two stories:
Nothing like a little poly-ticks - 5 million barrels is a drop in the daily bucket.
http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=50100&id=200009211431000238732
Clinton Decision 'Imminent' on Oil Reserve Release
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Thursday that President Clinton was actively considering whether to release oil from the nation's emergency stockpile and that a decision was ``imminent.'' ``At this very moment, a decision is imminent,'' Richardson told members of the U.S. House Government Reform committee during a hearing on rising energy prices. ``The president is actively considering that right now,'' Richardson said, referring to a possible release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. ``He may decide not to tap it,'' he added. The administration has been ``very reluctant'' to release oil from the 570 million barrel stockpile in the past, Richardson told the panel.
http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=50700&id=200009210819000135173
Gore Seeking Edge With Energy Issue
WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing a growing concern over the threat of high heating costs, Al Gore urged President Clinton on Thursday to tap the government's emergency petroleum reserve and force down oil prices before winter arrives. Attempting to turn public anxiety over high energy costs into a political advantage, Gore also called on Congress to provide $400 million in additional energy assistance for low income families and tax credits to oil distributors to help build up dwindling heating oil stocks. Gore urged the president to approve a series of ``swaps'' in which oil - about 5 million barrels initially - would be made available to the market. If these releases produced lower prices and eased tight supplies, the Energy Department should make additional releases ``to further stabilize prices,'' Gore said. Under Gore's plan, oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - a government stockpile of nearly 600 million barrels of crude intended to counter supply shortfalls - would be made available to the market through bids. A company would agreed to return the oil to the government at a future date, presumably when the price has declined, lowering its value. No actual money would be exchanged. As he did last summer when gasoline prices soared, the vice president took another swipe at the oil companies, claiming they were ``profiteering'' at the expense of American consumers saddled with $2-a-gallon gasoline during the summer and faced with an expected price shock in the winter heating season. The Energy Department predicts heating costs will be a third higher on average this winter than last and could go even higher if there is severe weather. It's yet to be determined how much of an impact energy prices will have in the final weeks of the presidential campaign. Gore this summer sought to paint his GOP rival, George W. Bush, as tied too closely to the oil industry. Gore was reviving that theme while unveiling his energy proposals during a campaign stop Thursday at a heating oil distribution company in St. Mary's County on southern Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. ``One of the central choices we face in this election is whether we will have a president who's willing to stand up to the big oil interests and fight for our families,'' Gore said in prepared remarks. On Wednesday, Bush, campaigning in Pennsylvania, said the Clinton administration - including Gore - should ``be held accountable for a failed energy policy'' that has thwarted domestic oil production and failed to confront the OPEC oil cartel. Asked at a town-hall-style meeting what he would do about oil prices and reliance on foreign oil, Bush, himself a former oilman, said he would ``use our diplomatic leverage'' against the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and increase domestic drilling, including in a protected arctic wildlife refuge in Alaska. The refuge is believed to harbor about 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Environmentalists have opposed its development, as has Gore. Bush and the oil companies have argued that drilling can be accomplished in an environmentally protective way. While Gore reiterated his long-term energy strategy - largely pegged to promoting increased conservation and a shift away from fossil fuels by tax credits and other incentives - his focus was on dealing with the short term. Many member of Congress have been urging the Clinton administration for months to step in and release oil from the strategic reserve. It was last used in response to an emergency in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, although some oil was sold to pay for operating the reserve in 1996 and 1997. So far, the White House has resisted such a move, but this week Clinton said he was considering tapping the reserve. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told a group of lawmakers Wednesday ``all options remain on the table'' and that the president would not leave consumers ``hostage'' to high heating oil costs. ``Shortly, I suspect the president will make some decision,'' Richardson said. Gore is appealing to voters in the East who heat their homes and people in the Midwest, the hotly contested presidential battleground, who are paying high prices to fill their automobile gas tanks. ``They've got to lower taxes and lower the price of gas,'' said Kathy Johnson of Economy, Pa. Pumping gas into her van at an Exxon station, she shook her head in disgust at a row of prices options - all higher than $1.50 per gallon. ``Can you believe these prices? Give us a break,'' she said. Gore called on oil companies to ``end their profiteering'' and for OPEC to immediately increase production and bring down prices that have been increasing steadily, reaching $37.80 a barrel on Wednesday. ``Crude oil prices are at a ten-year high, while the big oil companies have seen their profits increase by two to three times in the past year,'' declared Gore, pursuing a populist theme that has been central to his campaign in recent weeks. The oil industry has denied any profiteering, arguing that the price are determined by world market forces. While profits may be high this year, many companies struggled when oil prices were at $10 a barrel 18 months ago, they argue. The 14 major oil companies during the first eight months of this year earned a total of $15.5 billion, nearly triple the profits during the same period in 1999 when oil prices were depressed, according to the Energy Information Administration.
-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), September 21, 2000
Open to bids? I couldn't believe my ears when I read that. This is a joke. Does Mr. Re-invent Government realize how long this red-tape-filled process will take? He's lucky to get any oil at all into the pipeline before next April this way, long after New Englanders need heating oil for the heating season.Al Gore is a joke.
-- Billiver (billiver@aol.com), September 21, 2000.
Oh, goody. Let's see, we use some 16 million barrels a day. That means 5 million barrels would be enough to power the country for about 8 hours.Al Gore to the rescue. How could we ever do without him?
-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.net), September 21, 2000.
Now Gore is taking off against Big Oil. Heaven help us. It amazes me that no investigative reporting has been done on his convincing his boss, Big Bill Clinton to sell-off our precious Elk Hills (Calif.) Naval Reserve to Occidental Petroleum, a company in which his family owns a half million dollars worth of stock.When will the press wake up, investigate, and report?
-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 21, 2000.