DOE’s Bodman: No Plans To Hold Off On Adding Oil To SPR

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Friday that the government would “not plan to” hold off on adding oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve even though prices are at record highs.

“These prices seem very high, but there are buyers, you know for every transaction there’s a buyer and a seller and the reason people buy it is they think it’s going up from here,” he told reporters after a speech here.


The SPR “is protection of our nation from a … whether it’s a storm, a natural calamity, or an unnatural manmade calamity that prevents us from getting availability of fuel.”

As for a call earlier this week from presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to suspend the 18.4-cent federal gas tax this summer to give consumers relief from high prices, Bodman said “I don’t think it’s a good idea.” The taxes are used to finance the federal highway trust fund, which is used to fund highway and transportation construction.