Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumU.S. lawmakers gear up to block Trump plan to slash oil stockpile
Source: Reuters
COMMODITIES | Tue May 23, 2017 | 6:50pm EDT
U.S. lawmakers gear up to block Trump plan to slash oil stockpile
By Timothy Gardner | WASHINGTON
A Trump administration plan to sell off half the U.S. emergency crude oil stockpile to help balance the budget faces opposition in Congress, with lawmakers from both parties worried the proposal would undermine the drilling industry and make the country vulnerable to supply shocks.
The White House's 2018 budget proposal, sent to Congress on Tuesday, proposes raising nearly $16.6 billion by 2027 by gradually selling millions of barrels from the reserve, which now holds about 688 million barrels of oil in underground caverns in Texas and Louisiana. News of the proposal had briefly sent oil prices tumbling on concern it would oversupply the market, but prices recovered and finished slightly higher on hopes that OPEC and other countries would extend supply cuts.
"We should not be selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now," said Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, a leading oil producer state. "We should use the SPR for emergencies, and selling now would disrupt the markets."
The SPR sell-off plan is part of a broader White House proposal to balance the U.S. budget that is meant as starting point to debate policy with Congress - which will ultimately pass its own version.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-budget-energy-idUSKBN18J35Z
Phoenix61
(17,006 posts)made off that stock market wobble. The grifting just never fucking ends. And no, I don't think he cares if it gets sold or not. He just saw a really easy way to make a little more green.
Tanuki
(14,919 posts)dlk
(11,569 posts)Trump's baby girl recently received a $100 million slush fund from the Saudis. I wonder what he promised them in return. There are no free lunches in this world.
rpannier
(24,330 posts)It would create a glut of oil that would drop the price further
Unless it was a long term strategy for undermining Iran