It’s Official: We’re Screwed

Well, in the face of constantly-rising gas prices in the United States (good lord! They’re almost up to the levels Europe pays!), Congress has valiantly swung into action to the defense of the American consumer and done… well, nothing.

With great fanfare and much bloviating and boasting, Congress passed — by huge, veto-proof margins — a measure suspending additions to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a stockpile of about 700 million barrels of oil. Currently, the government buys about 70,000 barrels a day and sells about the same, keeping the stock “fresh.” (Why a product that’s been sitting in the ground for millions of years has an apparent “shelf life” is something I don’t quite understand, but that’s what they do.)

For comparison, the United States uses about 21 million barrels of oil a day. That means that the Reserve has enough oil to keep the United States going for 33 days — presuming we change nothing about our way of life AND we use nothing but the Reserve, two extremely unlikely events. A bit more relevant number is 0.33 percent — that’s how much more oil that is available for consumers with the cessation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve suspending its stock-rotation plan.

… Maybe I’m just too simple, but I just can’t wrap my head around the logic here. Someone please tell me where I’m wrong…

Wizbangblog