Joe Lieberman: “we think this amendment is critical for the energy security of the Northeastern United States. Last winter, in the…”

“we think this amendment is critical for the energy security of the Northeastern United States. Last winter, in the Northeast, we were really whacked by oil market whims, as we saw the prices of home heating oil soar, and we hovered dangerously close to heating oil supply shortages. In New England, the price of home heating oil rose from an average of $1.18 a gallon to about $1.79 a gallon in just 3 weeks' time. Some residents of my State were actually paying over $2 for a gallon of heating oil, which meant they were spending almost $500--some of them--to fill their tanks. Of course, lower income residents and fixed- income residents, including thousands of elderly, were faced with the tough choice of buying heating oil for their homes or food for their tables. This burdensome situation was caused by high crude oil prices, resulting from low crude oil supplies and low stocks of home heating oil converging with a downward turn in the weather that led to these price shocks that so disrupted the Northeast. There were a series of meetings and much concern last winter. I think one of the best ideas that emerged was to build on the strategic crude oil reserve that we have and to create a regional Northeast home heating oil reserve in which the Government would possess home heating oil, which at times of crisis could be moved out into the market to increase supply and therefore reduce price.”