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What we should be doing is any time OPEC does this kind of price war, we expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. "Keep it in the ground" while also building an
by Robotbeat 7y ago
What we should be doing is any time OPEC does this kind of price war, we expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. "Keep it in the ground" while also building an increasingly secure rainy day energy stockpile.
- perl4ever 7y agoIt appears that purchasing oil right now for the SPR was portrayed as a "bailout for big oil" so it was left out of the recent legislation.
- jjeaff 7y agoThe defense department has plenty of money. Maybe they should reallocate some of that budget to purchasing oil for storage. Having plenty of oil is definitely part of national defense.
- perl4ever 7y agoIn fairness, now that I check Wikipedia, it appears that the SPR is 80% full, and furthermore the average price paid was about $28/barrel. Right now WTI is $25ish and Brent is almost $28, so adding more to it probably isn't particularly vital at this moment, either in terms of increasing energy independence or in taking advantage of cheap prices.
- woeirua 7y agoTo be blunt, the SPR is superfluous now. It made sense when we were largely dependent on imported oil as we would have a buffer during a supply disruption. Now that the US is producing so much oil, and seemingly has almost unlimited amounts sitting in shale plays across the country, the SPR is much less useful.