The Bush administration’s decision to buy oil for the government’s emergency reserve is contributing to tight supplies and higher energy prices, some economists and congressional Democrats contend. The Energy Department discounts the impact of the purchases, nearly 11 million barrels since the beginning of May, while a number of oil traders say other factors have had more of an impact.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, urged Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham yesterday to immediately suspend the oil shipments into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, ’’until the price of oil falls from its current high levels and the private sector inventories increase.’’
Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis responded: ’’The vast majority of Americans realize that insuring the SPR is key to our energy and national security. That’s why there is bipartisan support to fill the reserve’’ to its 700 million-barrel capacity.
Filling the reserve when oil prices are high, huh? Wonder if the administration is expecting an "interuption" in the supply of oil from, oh, I don’t know, someplace with a lot of sand? |