Oil, Gasoline Tumble on Bush Energy Speech

Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday after President George W. Bush announced a series of measures to combat high energy prices, including a waiver of fuel requirements.

In a short speech on energy issues, Bush said that the Environmental Protection Agency will grant waivers to regions that have asked to sell conventional gasoline instead of cleaner burning reformulated gasoline.

The announcement comes amid growing anxiety about refiners’ ability to switch to ethanol-blended gasoline from gasoline blended with the controversial additive MTBE

In addition to the fuel waivers, Bush announced that the Administration will temporarily stop deposits to the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to make more oil available to the market.

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