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The Bush fellas were globalists, but Obama elevates the definition. It appears 'our' emergency oil has been viewed by other countries as 'their' oil since 2005, and today relates to European supplies vs the war in Libya:
6/26/11, "Why Did Obama Open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?" Steve Malloy, RedState.com
"I concluded that the President’s goal (in releasing emergency reserves) is a bump in the polls, but that the effect would be short-lived. Most in the media concluded the same.
But then I reread the DOE press release: “… the U.S. and its partners in the International Energy Agency have decided … .” Ach so. Our International President strikes again. Ceding control of a uniquely American asset to an international body is troubling, but par for the course in the Obama Administration.
Then I read the press release one more time.
The Administration will continue to consult closely with other consuming and producing countries in the period ahead.
Reserves in the SPR are sufficient to allow Mr. Obama to play this game from now until
- the November 2012 election.
Uh-oh. Now I’m really paranoid.
In 2008 the Congressional Research Service issued a report titled “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: History, Perspectives and Issues” (pdf link) which describes the legal requirements for a President to order a draw on the SPR. Initially created as strictly a emergency stockpile for domestic supply disruptions, in 2005 Congress loosened the drawdown criteria and explicitly contemplated IEA cooperation.*
Excerpt from "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: History, Perspectives and Issues", a report prepared by the Congressional Research Service, May 8, 2008. Highlighting added.
Read that last highlight again. A conniving president could, if I read the CRS study correctly, declare back-to-back emergencies eight times between today and the November 2012 elections. Eight times 30 million barrels is 240 million barrels. Take that away from the 727 million currently in inventory, and it leaves you with 487 million barrels, just under the statutory minimum volume of 500 million barrels....
To the extent there is an “emergency”, it’s a lot more urgent for Europe than it is for the U.S.
Who are the IEA member countries? Basically, the European Union, plus the U.S., Canada, Australia and South Korea.
IEA’s announcement of the release makes no separate mention of the U.S., although SPR oil accounts for half the total. In the IEA account, the release was an IEA decision.
International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka announced that the 28 IEA member countries have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil in the coming month in response to the ongoing disruption of oil supplies from Libya. This supply disruption has been underway for some time and its effect has become more pronounced as it has continued. The normal seasonal increase in refiner demand expected for this summer will exacerbate the shortfall further. Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery.
Here are some questions that journalists should be asking Secretary Chu, Secretary Geithner and President Obama:
- Who decided to make this release? Was it an IEA decision, or a cooperative one?
- Who decided the timing?
- What is the weighted-average inventory price of SPR oil we’ll be selling?
- Under what conditions will SPR inventory be replaced, and at what price?
- Under what conditions do you anticipate future releases, past the current 60-day period?
- Why not restore production in the Gulf of Mexico, instead of drawing on the SPR?"
*In 2006, a year after Bush globalized our oil reserves, Republican voters had seen enough. Bush lost the House of Representatives to democrats. Shortly after that came Obama's election, a landslide for democrats in the House in 2008, and a technical passage of ObamaCare in 2009 (which not even Obama apparently has read).
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