The Obama administration will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — half of the 60-million-barrel release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to make up for losses in Mideast supplies. The news sent oil prices down about 5 percent on Thursday. The SPR, which currently holds a record 727 million barrels, has only been tapped a few times since its creation in 1974. Does the war in Libya and other oil-disrupting unrest in the Middle East merit tapping America's emergency supply?
No. This sets a risky precedent: Obama's decision to uncork our oil reserves now is "totally mystifying," says Barb Arrigo in the Detroit Free Press. The apparent rationale is that high oil prices will cripple the global economy, but gas prices have already been falling for weeks. And even if this helps us, it sets a worrisome precedent that the SPR should be tapped for economic reasons, "rather than solely for emergencies that affect supply more sharply than the fighting in Libya has."
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