News Room
News Items from the Senator
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| May 13th, 2008 |
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Media Contact(s): Mark Eddington or Lindsey Stimpson, (202) 224-5251 |
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Printable Version |
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HATCH VOTES TO HALT OIL DEPOSITS TO U.S. STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE AND TO UNLOCK DOMESTIC OIL SUPPLY
Both Measures Represent a Commonsense Approach to Reducing Fuel Prices |
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Washington – U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) joined Senate colleagues today in approving an amendment to temporarily suspend government oil purchases for the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Adopted by a 97-1 margin, the Reid Amendment to the Flood Insurance Bill is aimed at lowering gas prices by halting the filling of the reserve for the remainder of year if the cost of crude oil remains more than $75 a barrel.
Hatch’s vote comes a few weeks after he and several other senators urged President Bush via letter to temporarily halt the deposit of domestic crude oil into the reserve, which is already at more than 95 percent capacity.
Even so, the senator has no illusions about the impact of the amendment. He noted the suspension would add approximately 70,000 barrels of oil a day to the domestic supply, which is miniscule compared to the 20 million barrels the U.S. consumes each day.
“Although the relief provided by the Reid Amendment will have a minimal impact, at least the Senate is willing to take some action,” Hatch said. “Everyone knows what we should be doing is increasing our domestic supply of oil dramatically. However, with the price of crude hovering near $125 a barrel, every little bit of relief counts and is welcome news for Americans everywhere.”
Still, Hatch lamented the fact that the majority party in the Senate rejected an amendment by Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), which would have taken major steps to increase energy production in the U.S. and therefore lower gas prices by a far greater amount than simply halting deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The McConnell/Domenici Amendment the Senate rejected would have produced up to 24 billion gallons of domestic oil.
“It was good to see the Senate majority supporting the Petroleum Reserve amendment,” Hatch added. “Unfortunately, it is a temporary measure that does nothing to boost energy production in this nation, which was the goal of Senator McConnell’s amendment. We have a global supply and demand problem for energy, and the only answer Senate leaders can come up with is to tax energy production and blame the futures market. The sooner members of the majority party learn the basic laws of supply and demand, the sooner we can address the root causes of high energy prices and avert a major disaster in our nation.”
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