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WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to suspend filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) through the end of the year if the price of crude oil remains above $75 a barrel. The action would inject an additional 70,000 barrels of oil per day into the U.S. market to help stabilize the U.S. oil supply and provide some relief at the pump for consumers. Oil economists estimate suspending the flow of oil into the SPR could lower gas prices by 5 to 24 cents per gallon. U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) – who has long advocated for this action – is a cosponsor of H.R. 6022, which passed the House by a veto-proof majority of 385-25.
“Filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve didn’t make sense when gas prices were approaching $2 a gallon in 2005 and it certainly doesn’t make sense today with prices hovering around $4,” Stupak said.
The president has the authority to suspend SPR deliveries without congressional action but – despite repeated bipartisan calls to do so – has refused to take action to address the current energy crisis. Stupak sent a letter to President Bush on May 7 calling for a temporary suspension of new SPR deliveries, noting that similar actions in the past had immediate impacts on the market.
Bush has supported suspending deliveries to the SPR in the past. In an April 2006 speech, he said “every little bit helps” and that he would suspend filling the SPR for the summer in order to lower gas prices. Despite his past statements, Bush has threatened to veto the House bill if it reaches his desk and the White House said on Monday that the administration plans to expand the size of the SPR.
“With the reserve 97 percent full and oil at an all-time high, now is not the time to continue filling the SPR,” Stupak said. “At current prices, the Department of Energy spends more than $8.5 million a day to stockpile oil which, in turn, drives up demand. It’s the families in northern Michigan and across the country struggling to fill their gas tanks who ultimately pay the price for these policies.”
The SPR is an emergency stockpile of petroleum maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy. Congress created the SPR in 1975 in order to protect from future supply disruptions after oil supplies were cut off during the 1973-74 oil embargo. The SPR is the largest emergency stockpile of oil in the world, with the capacity to hold up to 727 million barrels of crude oil. The SPR currently contains more oil than it ever has. With 703 million barrels of oil it is at 97 percent of its total capacity and contains enough oil to meet U.S. demand for 58 days if oil imports were cut off completely.
The last time the House considered halting deliveries to the SPR was in May 2005 when Stupak offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2006 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would have suspended SPR deposits until oil dropped below $40 a barrel. That amendment was defeated by the Republican majority that controlled the House at the time. Stupak, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was successful in adding similar language to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, but it was ultimately stripped out by the Senate.
Tuesday’s House vote on H.R. 6022, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension and Consumer Protection Act, coincides with a vote earlier in the day in the U.S. Senate. There, senators voted 97-1 for an amendment to a flood insurance bill to temporarily suspend shipments to the SPR. The White House continues to oppose any suspension of SPR deposits, but support from such a large bipartisan majority in Congress makes it likely any veto could be overridden. |
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![[News From Congressman Bart Stupak]](/congress110th/20081127221716im_/http://www.house.gov/list/speech/mi01_stupak/stupakpr.gif)
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