© April 26, 2011
Richard O. Harris
Perhaps I am confused, yet it seems to me less than a year or two ago (during the Gulf Oil Spill) there was a great deal of talk about using the National Oil Reserve to relieve prices at the pumps. As stated on the site: http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-drawdown.html “The Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserve exists, first and foremost, as an emergency response tool the President can use should the United States be confronted with an economically-threatening disruption in oil supplies.” We are currently experiencing (not just seeing) $4 and $5 a gallon prices for gasoline at the pumps due to interruptions of oil supplies because of unrest in the mid-east (mainly OPEC countries).
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/04/23/video-how-high-gas-prices-will-impact-the-economy-this-easter/ reports Barack Obama is “taking action”? Er, not really. He’s calling a task force together to look for abuse, which will do exactly nothing to lower gasoline prices. We need to expand domestic production and refining capacity in order to address the fundamentals of the instability of the fuel market. Until we do, we will continue to see prices fluctuate based on political unrest in producing countries, greater demand from developing industrial nations like China and India, and the lack of will to find our own resources and keep our own dollars in our own economy.
Still, not a single news cast or report I have heard mentions using this readily available resource to assist in our current crisis. Drilling, fracking, new energy sources I support with all of my being. Still, common sense tells me these will take time to develop, time we as a nation may not have thanks to the decline of America Obama has already caused (impeach this man for unilaterally invovling the U. S. in the Libyan war, which is not a Presidential prerogative.)
