Congressman McCaul Votes Against Irresponsible Energy Band-Aid

AUSTIN – Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX 10) voted against the Democratic proposal to siphon oil from the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to achieve a short-term pre-election reduction in gas prices. The bill, which failed to pass the House, would allow the sale of 10 percent of reserves that are historically used for short-term emergencies.

"For over a year we have been calling on the Democrats to allow us to vote on real, long-term energy reform to increase American production," said Congressman McCaul. "Instead, they ram through a bill that insults Americans by putting less than a week’s worth of additional oil on the market. Not only will it have little impact on prices, but it will reduce our ability to respond to a short-term supply disruption. That’s like dipping into your emergency savings to pay your rent because you refuse to get a full-time job."

Among the reasons that tapping the SPR for this purpose is bad policy:

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is, as its name conveys, a tool of national security policy. The SPR was never intended to be a political, market-tampering, price-adjusting tool. The SPR does not exist so that its oil would be released in order to bring prices down during election years.

Increases the Potential Harm of an Oil Supply Shock. The less we have in the SPR, and the more willing we are to use the SPR for non-strategic reasons, the more likely it would be that the U.S. could be harmed by an oil supply shock, and the stronger the signal would be to unscrupulous governments in Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, and elsewhere that the U.S. is vulnerable.

The proposal to deplete the nation’s reserves comes with most of the hurricane season still ahead. Hurricane Dolly, which made landfall at South Padre Island yesterday, spared our offshore rigs. But it is a vivid reminder that our country is only one storm away from suffering a major supply disruption which the SPR is meant to offset. In fact, the last time we dipped into the reserve was in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tapping the reserve would have minimal effect on American families. It would provide an estimated 11 gallons of gasoline per household. If gas prices remain at $4 per gallon the approximate savings to the average family would be $44.

Because gas is not in short supply, it is also unclear whether the market would be able to accommodate injecting 20 million more barrels of oil in a short timeframe due to the oil currently in the commercial infrastructure and already purchased for delivery.

Polls continue to show that Americans understand we need a long-term solution to increasing our domestic energy supply, not a one-time band-aid. Congressman McCaul continues to support drilling offshore, in mountain shale, and in the Arctic region – areas that are currently off-limits – to reduce our dependence on foreign countries who continue to charge us a premium for the 80% of our oil supply we continue to import.

To accomplish this, Congressman McCaul sponsors of the American Energy Act. The bill will increase the supply of American-made energy, improve conservation and efficiency, and promote renewable and alternative energy technologies. It is consistent with Rep. McCaul’s "all of the above" approach to becoming energy independent and bringing down gas prices.