Senate Wants to Stop Filling Strategic Reserve
The Senate voted to temporarily halt the shipment of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Both Democrats and Republicans said the shipments make no sense when oil costs over $120 a barrel and could better be used to add supplies to a tight market and help keep prices down.
“We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. “When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood.”
For the measure to become law, both the House and Senate must pass the emergency reserve directive and President Bush sign it — or Congress must enact it over a presidential veto.
