Defending the SPR: A Response to the Cato Institute essay “The Case Against the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”
Abstract
The Cato Institute article “The Case Against the Strategic Petro-
leum Reserve,” authored by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren, argues
that the government should terminate the program, and sell all the oil.
Unfortunately, their argumentation and evidence is often flawed and
sometimes erroneous; and their conclusion, coming as it does in era of
increasing energy insecurity, could not be more misplaced.
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References
Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren, “The Case Against the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve,” Policy Analysis (No. 555, November 21, 2005).
Timothy J. Considine and Kevin M Dowd, “A Superfluous Petroleum Reserve?”
Regulation 28, No. 2 (Summer 2005); U.S. Congress, Energy Policy and Conservation
Act of 1975 (hereafter cited as EPCA), PL 94-163, Statutes At Large, Vol. 89, December
, 1975, Sec. 161(a), 3(8).
U.S. Congress, “Energy Policy and Conservation Act Amendments of 1990 (EPCA
Amendments)” [PL 101-383], Statutes at Large: 1990, Vol. 104, Part 1, September 15,
(Washington, D.C: GPO, 1991); U.S. Congress, “Energy Policy Act of 1992” [PL
-486], Statutes at Large: 1992, Vol. 106, Part 4, October 24, 1992 (Washington, D.C.:
GPO, 1993), 106 Stat. 2994, Sec. 1401(B) and (C).
M.A. Adelman, The World Petroleum Market (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1972), p. 260.
David Greene and Paul Leiby, “The Social Cost to the U.S. of Monopolization of
the World Oil Market, 1972–1991,” ORNL-6744, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
March 1993; David Greene, Donald Jones, and Paul Leiby, “The Outlook for U.S. Oil
Dependence,” ORNL-6873, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, May 11, 1995; David
Greene and Nataliya Tishchishyna, “Costs of Oil Dependence: A 2000 Update,” Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, May 2000. Taylor and Peter Van Doren convert the Oak
Ridge cost estimates to 2005 dollars, see their notes 59-61, p. 19.
In July 2006, the DOE placed the SPR’s total cost at $22 billion ($5 billion for facilities;
$17 billion for crude oil), http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/spr/spr-
facts.html.
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