Strategic Petroleum Reserve

When I fell out of bed this morning, I saw oil prices also fall out of bed ... down almost 30% to under $13 per barrel ... basically free. This, of course, would be a once-in-a-lifetime price for our government to be preparing ourselves for a future oil shortage ... by filling to the brim our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) ... a moveTrump has repeatedly vowed to make. Russia is filling its reserve. China is filling its reserve. So are we?

The huge drop in oil prices suggests we are not ... so I went searching for the truth ... and found it ...  see:  Roll Call Article.

Ta-da! Partisan politics ... namely the Schumer-Pelosi tag team who are like hogs at the trough when it comes to stimulus money. They want their piglets fed ... and screw the national interests. The news is that the Payroll Protection Program is soon to be funded by an additional $250 billion of small business funding PLUS about $100 billion of bribes to Democrats. Does this include any money for the SPR?  This morning’s drop in oil prices is a hint at the answer.

I’m betting ... No!

Buy High, Sell Low

The United States just has it backwards (again). It is now planning to sell off millions of barrels of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve just when oil prices are at rock-bottom levels ... see: Daily Caller Article. With the backing of Republican lawmakers, the Obummer administration plans to sell off 266 million barrels of oil starting in 2018 to help fund our bloated government. This is about 40% of these reserves, much of it bought at much higher prices when OPEC had turned down the spigot on this commodity and we were panicked.

Of course the signaling of this intention can do nothing but keep oil prices low ... just when this pressure on prices is savaging the oil industry in the United States. Donald Trump actually has it right on this count ... our government is stupid. Obviously we should be buying oil to put in this reserve when prices are low ... and selling it when prices are high. But no, we are doing just the opposite ... and helping to kill off a major domestic industry in the process.

Perhaps if Obummer or any of his lickspittles had just taken a course in free-market economics in college instead of  Socialism 101?

Great Idea

A while back I suggested that our federal government buy, at today's rock-bottom prices, more oil to add to our Strategic Petroleum Reserve ... see: A Strategic Suggestion. This would help out the oil fracking industry in the United States while, at the same time, providing a cushion against future petroleum shortages. Now guess what? Our government is doing just that ... proposing the purchase of up to 5 million barrels to add to this reserve ... see: CNBC Story. Will miracles never cease?

I have a further suggestion ... how about making it 50 or 100 million barrels?