Roy Blunt: “I was amazed at the end of the business day today when there was a discussion on the floor as to whether or not the…”

“I was amazed at the end of the business day today when there was a discussion on the floor as to whether or not the failure to extend the law that authorizes the strategic oil reserve, and the concerns that many Members have about the Energy Department, somehow means that the Congress of the United States is responsible for the failure to have an energy policy for the last 7 years. It is exactly the kind of wrongheaded thinking that has allowed us to lull ourselves as a Nation into where we are today with gasoline prices, with heating oil prices. Certainly nobody is going to release the strategic oil reserve if that authorization is not extended for a few days. I think there is a very legitimate question as to who should control the strategic oil reserve. Should it be the Department of Energy or should it be the Department of Defense? What is the purpose of a strategic oil reserve? Is it militarily strategic, or is it strategic in some other way? In fact, what has happened for the last 7 years is that on all three fronts that we needed to have an energy policy, we have not had an effective energy policy.”