Obama Shifts Position on Strategic Petroleum Reserves

Senator Barack Obama has changed his position on using the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices. Back in July, he said the US shouldn’t do that, “at this point.” Apparently, the country is at another point because the senator has decided to withdraw some of the light crude and replace it with heavy crude.

The campaign’s energy policy director, Heather Zichal, in a conference call with reporters said, “What he will be calling for in his speech today is swapping out the light crude with the heavy crude, the heavy crude would replaced in the reserve at a later date so that we can get oil into the market. In the past when we’ve done this we’ve seen its demonstrated ability to help bring costs down and obviously consumers are suffering today. So he’ll be calling for that swap. Senator Obama has looked at this issue, he recognizes that Americans are suffering, that we have a unique situation with rising gas prices and this is one occasion where we need to look at this strategically and he made the decision that we need to tap the strategic petroleum reserves.”

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds responded, “Tapping the strategic oil reserve is not a substitute for a real plan to increase supply through additional drilling and nuclear power. The strategic oil reserve exists for America's national security strategy — not Barack Obama’s election strategy. The last release of oil from the strategic reserve came in response to Hurricane Katrina, but the only crisis that has developed since Barack Obama last rejected this idea 28 days ago is a slide in his poll numbers.”

The release of the oil will have a minimal effect on prices, and since they are already falling, the value of the exercise is doubtful. The politics of the situation, though, demand that the candidates say something about prices and that they offer some solutions. Senator Obama has been better than most at avoiding the gimmickry, but this time, he’s botched it.

His long-term proposals still look reasonably good. Building fuel-efficient cars and have one million 150 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrids on the roads within six years makes a great deal of sense. Requiring that 10 percent of the country's energy come from renewable sources by the end of his first term is a start to requiring all of it come from renewable sources and is wise. Calling on businesses, government and the American people to meet the goal of reducing the demand for electricity 15 percent by the end of the next decade is wishful thinking, but costs nothing to try. Shame about the pandering.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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