[Ferretlover]

I received this email today:
Issue May 14, 2008 - http://sanders.senate.gov
"The Senate on Tuesday passed a measure cosponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders to suspend oil deposits into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The measure would increase supplies and lower prices for gasoline and other fuels. Sanders said the vote to suspend the shipments until the end of the year was a first step by Congress to confront the gasoline price crisis. "The Senate voted to stop the Bush administration from continuing the absurd policy of adding 70,000 barrels of oil a day to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which already is 97 percent full," he said. "This is a small but important step forward in providing some relief to consumers who are paying record prices at the gas pump."
Sanders, a member of both the Senate energy and environment committees, added that a comprehensive approach is needed to resolve the current energy crisis. “Long term, we must aggressively transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and foreign oil into energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Short term, we must take some very immediate steps to protect the American people against the soaring prices of gas and oil.”
Bernie wants to hear your story. Please take a moment and click here to watch a message from the senator about gas prices and you."

The reason I have posted it is because, according to the short video at
video, the senator wants to hear what people think about the gas situation, and is going to read the best responses on the Senate floor.

edited to fix dumb typo..sigh..

[Gandalf_the_White]

I gave him $.04 worth.

I noticed this on his site as well.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=297500

That one would be sure to do the exact opposite of what they intend. By stopping SPR they would make us less able to ptoect ourselves in a shortage, buy limiting speculation they would cap prices bringing that shortage ever nearer, by removing subsidies and placing a windfall tax on oil companies they would pass higher prices along to the consumer sooner. What they need is to step down from the car culture and reinvent the steam engine. The Teamsters are thinking about protecting jobs that burn fossil fuels at an efficiency of about 17%. They also need to realize the paradigm has to shift.

[TITAN]

70,000 barrels added to the markets will do almost absolutely zilch. It would have been much more productive to introduce some type of mandatory measures to force conserving; like an extra $2-$3 tax on every gallon of gas and diesel.

[Ferretlover]

In my response to the Senator, I left NO doubt as to how stupid I thought it was to stop filling the SPRs, etc.

With so many clever people here, I am hoping he will get a lot more than he bargained for... of course, there is always the slight chance that Congress may notice that not all people are braindead-a risk worth taking, I think!

[mercurygirl]

Hmm. Bernie Sanders is a smart guy. He almost undoubtedly knows the big picture. Since he probably knows all the points so far touched upon here, this smells like pandering to me. Too bad, just another pol.

[jasonraymondson]

We use 20 million barrels of oil a day.

This will release 70,000 barrels

20,000,000 / 70,000 = ~286

1/286 of a penny savings.

at 3.69 gas this will take us to 3.68

WOW THE SAVINGS.

[mos6507]

For all the bean counting in washington they don't seem to understand the math behind oil supply and demand.