That comes after several Democratic Senators, including Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, called for President Obama to consider releasing oil from the reserve. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also said last week that the U.S. was prepared to act and tap the SPR if necessary.
But that could be a big mistake for one significant reason. This isn't really a crisis yet. Yes, oil and gas prices have surged due to unrest in Libya but there hasn't been much impact on global supply as of yet. Instead, what's going on reeks of speculation.
Whoaaa! Tap the Strategic Oil Reserves! Oh my! That sounds important, doesn't it! BFD. AFAIAC, tapping the reserves is a diversion. The oil is there to give us time and resources to stomp someone's a$$ if we get cut off for some reason. Nothing short of that should necessitate getting into it.
If politicians tap it, they are just trying to draw attention away from the poor political decisions that put them into a position to feel that they needed to reduce the political heat.
If we had our own oil supply, we wouldn't need to worry about the price of oil. But they keep playing games rather than just make the easy, obvious decision that cuts into the size and power of government.
After they draw down the reserves, then what? They have to fill them back up again. Duh. And how do you fill them? Buy more oil. Which increases the price. And you end up losing in the end. Except maybe the peasants are too stupid to notice that they just got had. Again.