Massachusetts, New Hampshire Lawmakers Urge Bush to Order Emergency Oil Release
WASHINGTON– Citing rising oil prices and the possible disruption of oil supplies now that the United States is at war with Iraq, lawmakers from Massachusetts and New Hampshire are urging President Bush to release oil from the country’s emergency fuel reserves.
In a joint letter to Bush Wednesday, the Bay State congressional delegation said the war with Iraq, coupled with this winter’s harsh temperatures, have caused oil prices to skyrocket, forcing some residents in their districts to choose between paying for heat or for groceries. The New Hampshire delegation wrote to Bush in February with the same concerns.
Congressman Martin T. Meehan, D-Lowell, said in an interview that it was senseless to wait until supplies are disrupted before dipping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the emergency supply of crude oil stored along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. When Iraq seized oil fields in Kuwait in 1990 – a move that spurred the first Gulf War – Meehan said the price of crude oil jumped $21 per barrel. He said he expects that history will repeat itself in this second war with Iraq. Oil prices peaked last month at $39 per barrel, falling just shy of the record $41.15 per barrel set during the Gulf War, he said.
The president is the only person who can authorize a draw from the reserve, which currently holds 600 million barrels of oil. According to the federal Office of Fossil Energy, the reserve has been used for emergency purposes only once since its inception in 1977 – during the first Gulf War in 1991, when 13 companies were allowed to buy 17 million barrels from the reserve. Now that the United States is at war with Iraq for a second time, lawmakers fear that the country’s oil supply is in danger again.
“There are already reports of oil fields on fire, and it doesn’t make sense for us to wait,” Meehan said Thursday. The reserve is “a safety valve so that prices don’t go up any higher.”
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said government officials do not know the extent of the damage to Iraqi wells or how many wells have been targeted by Saddam Hussein’s regime. But he said that worldwide oil supplies “are more than adequate to compensate for any disruption these acts may cause.” In a statement Thursday, Abraham said that oil-producing countries like Saudi Arabia have significantly increased production in recent weeks and have pledged to work with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to prevent an oil shortage.
In addition to asking Bush to tap into the national reserve, the Massachusetts and New Hampshire lawmakers have also requested that he release fuel from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, a smaller stock of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that was set aside specifically for that region. The Northeast’s 2-million-barrel supply is stored in tanks in Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said in an interview that while he has adopted a “wait-and-see attitude” about the need to draw from the national supply, the government should continue monitoring oil and gasoline prices and consider using oil from the Northeast supply to help residents who have been hit hard by fuel bills this winter. Bradley said that oil prices have dropped recently but that the price of gasoline at the pumps remains “pretty high.”
“Higher energy costs are draining family budgets,” Sen. John F. Kerry said in a statement. “And with gasoline prices soaring and home heating costs through the roof, New England’s economy is getting whacked with a two-by-four.”
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
