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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Drawing Down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

The United States has a strategic reserve of petroleum that was created to make sure that America has an adequate supply of oil in the event of a massive supply disruption in the world oil trade. in other words, the strategic reserve is designed to give America flexibility in the even that Iran closes the Straits of Hormuz or something similar happens. During the time it would take for the US armed forces to reopen the Straits of Hormuz, oil would be released from the reserve to keep the country running. Today, however, president Obama has made clear that he is going to drain oil out of the strategic reserve in order to help his re-election campaign. Obama and British Prime Minister Cameron have agreed to coordinate the release of reserves with reports indicating that agreement will come some time this summer.

Here is how Reuters reports the news:

Britain has decided to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral agreement to release strategic oil stocks, two British sources said, in an effort to prevent high fuel prices derailing economic growth in a U.S. election year.

That's right, Reuters, which is always slanted towards the progressives, recognizes that the main issue here is to avoid bad news for Obama during an election year.

The strategic reserve was created to increase American national security. Never again was the USA going to face an oil embargo without reserves. And now, Obama is wasting that national security asset just to help his re-election campaign.

Obama has got to go!

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