Mike Levin: “we have skyrocketing gas prices and oil prices in most parts of the country. The major reason for this is private sector…”

“we have skyrocketing gas prices and oil prices in most parts of the country. The major reason for this is private sector inventories are low. The major reason private sector inventories are low is we, at the same time, have seen a decline in those inventories of 50 million barrels in the last 2 years. We have deposited in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve approximately 85 million barrels. Even the staff of the Department of Energy a year ago said the following: Commercial petroleum inventories are low. Retail product prices are high, and economic growth is slow. The Government should avoid acquiring oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve under these circumstances. We would halt the deposit of oil in the Reserve, and we would use the money, approximately $1.7 billion, to restore a number of accounts in the Homeland Security Department; namely, we would restore about 80 percent of the money cut from the Homeland Security grant program; $250 million we would restore to firefighter grants to bring them up to last year. We would add money for port security, $150 million for deficit reduction, and about $220 million for an equity account.”