Sen. John McCain is calling for the U.S. to stop adding oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, making him the highest profile Republican to break with the Bush administration on its policy of expanding the emergency stockpile. In an economic speech this afternoon, the Republican presidential candidate said that oil prices are too high to continue filling the reserve.
With oil at over $100 a barrel and an adequate supply in the SPR, it is time to suspend purchases, he said in remarks prepared for delivery. This will lessen worldwide demand for oil, and if the classic laws of supply and demand hold, we should see a welcome decrease in the price of oil.
In addition, Sen. McCain is calling on Americans to cut back on energy use, though he was not specific as to how. I ask every American to consider how you can sacrifice a bit for the common good and cut back where you can on your energy use, he said.
His comments follow weeks of protests by truckers upset over the sharp rise in the price of diesel fuel, which now is more than $4 a gallon in many parts of the country.
Administration officials say that expanding the reserve is vital to the country s energy security and that purchases for the stockpile are having a negligible effect on prices. The administration is trying to fill the reserve to its 727 million-barrel capacity by the end of this year. Currently, the reserve holds 698.7 million barrels of crude oil in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast.
Earlier this week, the Energy Department warned that gasoline prices could surge above $4 a gallon this summer in some parts of the U.S. a prediction that politicians from both parties in Washington immediately seized on to attack one another s policies.
With oil at over $100 a barrel and an adequate supply in the SPR, it is time to suspend purchases, he said in remarks prepared for delivery. This will lessen worldwide demand for oil, and if the classic laws of supply and demand hold, we should see a welcome decrease in the price of oil.
In addition, Sen. McCain is calling on Americans to cut back on energy use, though he was not specific as to how. I ask every American to consider how you can sacrifice a bit for the common good and cut back where you can on your energy use, he said.
His comments follow weeks of protests by truckers upset over the sharp rise in the price of diesel fuel, which now is more than $4 a gallon in many parts of the country.
Administration officials say that expanding the reserve is vital to the country s energy security and that purchases for the stockpile are having a negligible effect on prices. The administration is trying to fill the reserve to its 727 million-barrel capacity by the end of this year. Currently, the reserve holds 698.7 million barrels of crude oil in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast.
Earlier this week, the Energy Department warned that gasoline prices could surge above $4 a gallon this summer in some parts of the U.S. a prediction that politicians from both parties in Washington immediately seized on to attack one another s policies.
