Jeff Bingaman: “I appreciate the opportunity to speak briefly about an amendment Senator Murkowski and I have filed. There is a…”

“I appreciate the opportunity to speak briefly about an amendment Senator Murkowski and I have filed. There is a provision in the Energy and Water appropriations bill, which we are considering in the Senate, that we would like to see stricken or deleted from the bill. It is a provision in the legislation that mandates the sale of $500 million worth of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, as it is called. The bill also ends the Royalty-in-Kind Program. That part I am not disputing at this point. The language in the bill that we are concerned about is on page 41. It says in that part of the bill: Notwithstanding various other provisions, the Secretary of Energy shall sell $500 million in petroleum product from the reserve not later than March 1 of 2012, and shall deposit any proceeds from such sales in the general fund of the Treasury. In the words of the Department of Energy: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists, first and foremost, as an emergency response tool the President can use should the United States be confronted with an economically threatening disruption in oil supplies. The SPR is our Nation's insurance policy against oil supply disruptions, and keeping it well stocked and operational is important to our energy security. I believe that is a view shared by Democrats and Republicans. The SPR became filled to its maximum capacity of roughly 727 million barrels for the first time in its history in the year 2009.…”