Breaking... Energy Dept. to release 30 million barrels from Strategic Petroleum Reserve

[sinkingfeeling]

No story yet, but headline here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/


Here's the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43508263/ns/business-oil_and_energy/

The United States and other oil-consuming nations said Thursday they plan to release 60 million barrels of oil from government reserves over the next month in a bid to push down soaring energy prices.

The announcement had an immediate impact on global markets, pushing down the price of one benchmark grade of crude by $5 a barrel to about $109.

The consumer nations acted after OPEC failed to raise production at a meeting on June 8 and despite assurances from OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia that it would lift supplies unilaterally.

Overall the U.S. and IEA plan to release 2 million barrels per day onto the world market over the next 30 days, more than making up for the 1.2 million barrels daily that Libya was exporting before the current unrest.

[Sedona]

1. Yay!

Gas under $3.50 a gallon? One can only hope.

[FSogol]

2. Know what would lower the cost of petroleum quicker?

Tax the oil companies and all their subsidiaries based on their storage amounts.

[dkf]

5. Why encourage complete usage of all our gas/oil with no storage?

Does no one believe in peak oil anymore?

And wow... Al Gore really has lost the battle against Global warming.

[trumad]

8. That and get rid of the speculators.

[ProSense]

14. Yup, that

would help.

Obama says new task force will examine gas prices (April)

CFTC Chairman: 90 Percent Of Bets On Rising Oil Prices Come From Speculators (June)

[dkf]

3. Weird. Are we planning to escalate in Libya or something?

[William769]

4. Gas station by my house this morning dropped gas again to 3.50 a gallon

Just 3 weeks ago we were sitting at 3.89 a gallon.

[BlueCaliDem]

6. GOOD! It's clear Big Business and Republicans are trying to keep a hostile environment

in the U.S. in order to regain power from the Democrats so they can finish destroying democracy in favor of fascism and plutocracy.

It's been reported that businesses are not hiring, but are sitting on nearly a trillion dollars in cash collectively. They're just making their employees work harder...and do their part in American slave labor while keeping the unemployment nice and high so that President Obama gets blamed, and hopefully, not re-elected.

Higher gasoline and energy prices also work in favor of Big Business and the Republicans since what little the American family has left over is gobbled up by higher prices at the pump and in their electric bills, and this will hopefully, hopefully, serve them well at the polls, just like Nov 2010.

[Javaman]

30 million barrels of oil won't do a thing.,.

since we use about 19 million per day on average.

[BlueCaliDem]

18. In combination with the new Financial Fraud Enforcement Working Group

it will.

The 30 million barrels might not help in the long run, but it'll help bring down prices in the short run together with the FFEWG as they investigate speculators on Wall Street.

I see no other reason why President Obama would do this other than knowing the FFEWG has found widespread fraud (given that they've been formed and working on this since April this year).

We'll see.

[DainBramaged]

7. We use 8,000,000 barrels a day here, maybe it's just a shot across the bow......

[stuntcat]

10. that was my first thought.. this'll last how many hours?

I'm walking to work later on, bet I'll be passed by at least two Hummers :banghead:

[Javaman]

13. actually we use between 18 and 21 million barrels day.

Oil Consumption in North America

Currently, the United States consumes 19.6 million barrels per day, of oil, which is more than 25% of the world's total.. As a result, the U.S produces one fourth of the world's carbon emissions. Despite predictions that the U.S. will exhaust it's supply of oil in as little as forty years, the demand is on the increase, and is predicted to continue increasing, because of the ever increasing population. Increase in resource consumption is caused by three factors: population growth, new uses found for a resource, and increase in demand for a resource to increase living standards. The rate of consumption for oil is increasing at a rate of about 2% yearly.

http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/sidebar/oilconsumption.html

[ProSense]

9. Democrats have

been calling for this.

House Dems Introduce New Oil Reserve Legislation

WASHINGTON (March 10, 2011) – As unrest has spread in the Middle East, and gas prices continue to rise, House Democrats today introduced new legislation that would initiate a modest release of oil from the nation’s oil reserves to temper prices in the short-term, and update the reserves to provide long-term security. The Enhanced Strategic Petroleum Reserve Act would direct the Department of Energy to release at least 30 million barrels of oil from the reserves, or about 5 percent of the current total volume, and replace the oil with refined product like gasoline and diesel fuel.

The legislation is authored by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, and co-sponsored by Reps. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Bill Owens (D-N.Y.).

Releasing even modest amounts of oil from the SPR has had a history of driving down prices in the short term. Unrest in the Middle East has expanded, and is now threatening larger cutoffs in supply and encouraging rampant speculation in the marketplace, driving up prices further. This could have a serious effect on America’s economic recovery, with some analysts worrying it could send the U.S. economy back into a recession.

<...>

Top Senate Democrat urges tapping oil reserve

[dkf]

12. Ahhhh...they are releasing the oil to make room for gas or diesel.

That doesn't sound like it will lower gas prices.

[Javaman]

11. to what goal?

that will last just over a day.

30 million is a drop in the bucket of our energy use.

We use between 18 and 21 million barrels a day.

[Marblehead]

15. speculators

push the cost up 50%

[Javaman]

16. 30 million barrels will have zero effect on the spectulators. nt

[ProSense]

17. But

this will:

Obama says new task force will examine gas prices (April)

CFTC Chairman: 90 Percent Of Bets On Rising Oil Prices Come From Speculators (June)