I always warn that when the US Senate votes unanimously on something outside of national security, Americans should beware.
Congress voted overwhelmingly to suspend putting 70,000 barrels/day (the US consumes about 21 Million/day) of oil into a strategic reserve facility. This reserve allows the US to operate for a short period of time should oil deliveries cease for some reason or demand increases exponentially for some reason.
The measure is likely to be one of the few Congress approves this year in response to public angst at the pump. Democrats and Republicans agreed on little else Tuesday to bring down prices.
Senators approved the measure by a veto-proof majority of 97 to 1. The two Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, returned to the Capitol from the campaign trail to vote for the measure. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive GOP nominee, supported the measure but was absent for the vote.
The House later followed suit, approving it 385 to 25.
Since everyone is campaigning, they want to be seen as people who make it better for the American people. This move is likely to impact fuel prices by about a nickel a gallon. However, the average fuel price is expected to rise more than that over the summer. So, the real impact to your pocket is going to be nil, zilch, nada. The government is going to tell you that you saved money that you will never see. We are talking about oil that represents less than 1% of consumption. This is the most expensive possible way to save Americans money because it actually does nothing of the kind.
Rather than do something significant - maybe actually act toward some smaller level of foreign oil dependency, these knuckleheads are going to risk our ability to use stored fuel if some disaster (earthquake, hurricane anyone?) impacts the flow of oil to the US.
Vote-mongering.
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