about 15cents in the last week ... so to battle this the WH is looking at tapping into the National Oil Reserve ... what?
We need to understand what the oil reserve is -- it is for emergencies ... it is for when there is a time that we can not GET oil from other countries - say there is some major disaster out there that cuts off supplies (like in Libya & Egypt where the Suez canal line could be blocked) and we can't get any more oil.
It is to help prevent shortages like we had in the 70's under Ford/Carter ... it is to help prevent rationing like we had during WW2 (although I see that coming again soon) ...
I don't think it is to activate simply because people don't want to pay more at the pump -- after all, we will have to fill it back up sooner or later - it is not an endless supply.
Times when the Reserves have been tapped before:
- 1991 - Persian Gulf war (Desert storm), 21Million Barrels (that is one days worth today) ... result=gas prices jumped up ....
- 1996 - Clinton sold 28million barrels to pay down debt
- 2005 - Hurricane Katrina (after) only 11 million barrels ... flattened out oil prices, but spiked afterwards.
still not as nice as the 57cent stuff from the 80's but it was better than what we had.
Save the reserve -- if you want to drop prices you have to do two things:
- show the other countries that we don't NEED their oil, we have enough of our own (and let AMERICAN companies drill there)
- investigate the sudden rise of prices - I've heard rumors that this latest 5cent increase had nothing to do with the actual price of oil, it was all wall street lead.
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