On the recordJuly 17, 1995
Mr. Chairman, I am offering this amendment today to protect a valuable asset of this country, and that is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This reserve has been in operation since the 1970s, and this in one case here, we are, in essence, cutting $100,000,000 in order to save the reserve, because in its wisdom, the committee decided they wanted to sell 7 million barrels of this particular oil in order to try and gain $100 million for the operation of the SPR. Mr. Chairman, I think if we look at some of the past situations we have had with the Middle East oil situation where prices escalated, by dipping into the reserve we were able to hold that amount down, and the second thing is if we sell that oil, we have about $33 in it. If we sell it we may get $16 or $17. That does not make a lot of sense to me as far as this whole situation is. I just do not think economically we are thinking right, that this is the way to do it.
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