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President Obama: No To Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) issued the following statement upon President Obama’s announcement of releasing 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR):

“The President’s plan to release 30 million barrels over the next 30 days from the SPR amounts to 1 million barrels a day, which doesn’t put a dent in the nearly 19 million barrels that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports Americans consume daily. To put this move in perspective, 30 million barrels would only last the U.S. 1.6 days at normal average daily use. Using our emergency reserve to ease political discomfort does not address our supply and demand issue and risks America's national security. Moreover, the President is acknowledging the need for more domestic oil, which my Republican colleagues and I have been advocating for months.

"The Administration ought to support energy policies that produce American jobs and lower gas prices, such as streamlining the permit process for offshore drilling, allowing exploration and drilling on public lands, and implementing a competitive leasing program that encourages the exploration, development, and production of domestic oil. Instead he is releasing petroleum from our strategic reserve, which creates no jobs and will be replaced at a price that further increases our national debt."

According to EIA, there are currently 726,542,000 barrels of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Yesterday, the price of WTI oil closed at $95.41 and Brent crude oil futures for August 2011 delivery traded at $113.14 a barrel, costing $2.9 billion and $3.4 billion respectively to replace 30 million barrels. Based on current trends these numbers could increase dramatically.

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