US Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), breaking with the administration of President George W. Bush, urged the White House Apr. 10 to stop purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while oil prices are at record levels.
The announcement means that all three major presidential candidates now support the bill introduced Feb. 5 by Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) that would suspend SPR purchases for the rest of this year, or until oil prices fell to $50/bbl or below.
Dorgan said Sens. Hillary R. Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the two remaining major Democratic presidential candidates, expressed their support with other Senate Democratic Caucus members on Mar. 11 in a letter to Bush. McCain’s backing “could encourage additional bipartisan support for my legislation,” Dorgan said.
“All three presidential candidates now oppose the Bush administration program of putting nearly 70,000 bbl of oil underground every day,” Dorgan said, adding, “The current policy puts upward pressure on [gasoline] prices and is not in the nation’s interest. With oil prices at record highs and the SPR nearly full, it makes no sense.”
McCain’s announcement came a day after House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and two other House Democrats joined their Senate colleagues as they urged Bush to suspend SPR purchases when oil prices hit a record high.
“Today, oil and [gasoline] prices each hit record levels. The price of oil traded above $112[/bbl] on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the price of gas has now risen to a nationwide average above $3.34/gal,” Emanuel said in an Apr. 9 letter, which also was signed by Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
The congressmen noted that the Department of Energy announced Apr. 4 it was going to continue filling the SPR and would solicit bids for 13 million bbl of additional oil. “Purchasing oil at these record prices to continue filling the SPR makes no sense. Furthermore, we should be acting to provide relief to consumers from high energy prices, not exacerbating runaway oil speculation by taking oil off the market,” they told Bush.
DOE officials have said halting SPR purchases would have no significant impact on prices because they are such a small part of the total global oil market.
