Democrats are pushing the President to tap the SPR.

[DCBob]

From the Politico..

-snip-

“Selling reserve oil on the open market is the one step that we know will reduce oil and gasoline prices in the immediate term,” said Daniel Weiss of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “Every time we sold reserve oil it has lowered oil and gasoline prices. We know it works.”

Three House Democrats — Reps. Ed Markey, Peter Welch and Rosa DeLauro — also are urging Obama to open up the spigots.

“This most recent run-up in prices is primarily the result of fear driving oil markets, not an actual loss of supply,” they wrote in a letter to Obama, adding that it would "send a message to Iran that we are ready, willing and able to deploy our oil reserves.”

On Friday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suggested the SPR is a possibility. "There's a case for the use of the (reserves) in some circumstances, and we'll continue to look at that and evaluate that carefully," he told CNBC Friday morning.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73279.html

=============

This sounds like they are setting the table for the President. I suspect if prices continue to rise he will tap into the reserves. He can easily make a case that this is a national emergency given how fragile our economy is. Of course the Republicans will howl and wail he is just doing it for political purposes. The American people wont care as long as pump prices come down.

[Zalatix]

1. It won't work. We're exporting gasoline.

Which means the more oil we unleash into the market, the more gasoline we'll export. Prices will still go up.

[DCBob]

2. It will work. You know how I know?

Because Republicans are freaking out about the possibility of it happening.

[CAPHAVOC]

3. Both ways.

On one hand they tell me we have plenty. Then we need to sell our reserve because there is not enough. Which is it? If we need to open the Reserve then we ought to be drilling everywhere to get more.

[DCBob]

5. Opening the SPR will discourage the speculators and drive the price down.

Awarding more leases for drilling wont.. that's too far into the future to affect current speculation.

[CAPHAVOC]

6. Wonder how low it will go. Here it is way too expensive and going up.

$3.68 the other day when I filled up. It was only $3.11 a month or so ago. I have to get at least about 15 gallons a week. But I think I can cut it back to about 10 gallons by only using it for absolute necessities.

[DCBob]

7. I dont think it will go down dramatically.

The main goal is to simply stabilize the price. If they can keep the price around $3.25-3.50/gallon, I think that would be considered a success.

[CAPHAVOC]

8. Hopefully only $3.25.

But they better not sell it to China.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Since we all know they are speculating

yet insisting it's a supply problem, it would work in terms of exposing the lies about a "supply disruption" or "supply uncertainty". It's a call-out.

I think the key here is the game of chicken and timing. Doing it too soon or too often would negate the possibility of success.

[DCBob]

9. I think he will only need to do it once.

that should calm the speculators for awhile.. hopefully long enough to let the Iran "crisis" settle down which would further reduce speculation.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. He did it last summer (July 2011)

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/06/obama-taps-strategic-petroleum-reserve-will-release-more-if-necessary/

And that was after the prices had gone over $4 and started dropping just below that threshold. So it seems that price point might be the trigger and they would want to time it (and optimize the quantity) for maximum effect and to only have to do once.

[DCBob]

14. yeah, i forgot about that.

This could be a very similar scenario and timing.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. That's what I'm thinking

although the rethugs are so desperate, they are playing all the cards in their hand early because their entire slate of candidates have massively tanked, so its back to trying to make the economy "fail" to compensate and distract from the recovery news. But sometimes, running up prices on purpose backfires. and they can end up with diminishing returns... The last time it happened, carpooling shot up and the Hummers & Escalades disappeared off the roads. But now even the bigger SUVs get better gas mileage (which is why they are still out on the roads with the current prices), so the demand could still conceivably drop quite a bit with carpooling, and further expose the speculative and disingenuous aspect of what they are doing.

[DCBob]

22. The GOPers are orgasmic over the possiblity of gas prices going way up..

and negatively impacting the President politically. I think many think that is their only hope of winning in Nov.

[BumRushDaShow]

23. They are trying to spike them up now

and the key would be what the price is in the fall, and whether any credible "alternative" to Obama ever materializes out of the teabagger-infested GOP. The GOP convention starts August 27. The Democratic Convention starts right after Labor Day September 3, and concludes on September 6. So that is when the rubber meets the road.

[taterguy]

10. We export refined product but import the raw material

Domestic oil supplies will never be enough to cover domestic demand.

They haven't since US taps started running dry in the 1960s.

[sendero]

11. Nonsense.

... got what a load of codswallop. Tapping the SPR would do damn near nothing other than make us vulnerable.

[DCBob]

13. More vulnerable to what??

[sendero]

24. To a SERIOUS.

... disruption in supply. The current situation is nothing of the sort. This could easily be the new normal.

[New Yawker]

15. Democrats SHOULD be pushing the President to shut down the speculators by ordering them arrested

and sentenced to death.

[lunatica]

17. Well if he were King or Dictator maybe he could do that

[DCBob]

20. Here are some interesting comments last year from Bernie Sanders on how to regulate speculation.

-snip-

Ten years ago, speculators only controlled about 30 percent of the oil futures market. Today, Wall Street speculators control more than 80 percent of this market, even though many of them will never use a drop of this oil. Their only function in this process is to make as much money as they can, as quickly as they can.

-snip-

The Wall Street reform Act, Dodd-Frank, required the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to impose strict limits on the amount of oil that Wall Street speculators could trade in the energy futures market by January 17 of this year.

Almost five months later, the CFTC has still not imposed those speculation limits. In other words, the chief regulator on oil speculation is clearly breaking the law and is not doing what it is supposed to be doing.

-snip-

Therefore, today I introduced legislation with Senators Blumenthal, Merkley, Franken, Whitehouse and Bill Nelson to end excessive oil speculation once and for all. I am also pleased to announce that Congressman Maurice Hinchey will be introducing this legislation in the House.

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/stop-oil-speculation-now_b_877739.html

[think]

16. Speculators need to take a bath and get a job. Open the reserves. /nt

[IamK]

18. If gas is $4.50+ at election time, the president will not get re-elected

no one will care who is really to blame, they will vote with their (lightened) wallets/purses...

[DCBob]

19. So I assume you recommend opening the SPR.

correct?