U.S. to release oil from strategic reserve - Yahoo! Finance I've been reading about this and can't seem to understand why we are doing it. Oil prices have gone down 16% in the last two weeks and we are already getting relief at the pump. To me, the reserves should be for a real emergency, not used as an attempt at economic stimulus.
Yea, but with the push for so called, clean energy, when do you actuary think there would be an oil shortage? Hell the middle east hasn't been stable for 10+ years and we still have oil...
As of '08, we were using 19.5 million barrels per day. 30 million barrels is literally a drop in the bucket and it wouldn't surprise me if this is yet another early campaign tactic, nothing more.
Yeah, that's pretty much the point. He releases 4% of our reserves and gets nothing out of it except a few articles and a few sellers of crude. If that gains him points politically then our country is in much deeper trouble than I thought.
There have been 18 sales, drawdowns, and loaned petroleum at the Strategic Reserve since it was created and under every President. This happens from time to time. Bush did it after Katrina bumped up prices and supplies were short. This was done because the Arab Spring unrest caused supplies to go down with Libyan oil off the market. It wasn't much and it was matched by the International Energy Agency which also released reserves to lower international oil prices before the summer demand causes shortages again.
No, its also to give us leverage and independence when foreign powers or foreign situations cause shortages. We don't have to beg Saudi Arabis to produce another 30 million barrels to help reduce a price spike. We can do it ourselves and replace the oil later when it is cheaper. We do this from time to time. People are trying to make an issue out of nothing. 30 million barrels is a drop in the bucket. It's like 4% of the reserve.