I appreciated the "Bravo" The Jamestown Sun awarded me June 23 for my stance against buying oil at record prices to expand the Strategic Oil Reserve. It makes little sense to me to take that oil out of the supply pipeline at this time and drive the price of gasoline up even higher.
So it was puzzling to me that, at the same time, The Sun insisted that the federal government should pay record prices to fill the reserve to its current capacity, an action that would also waste taxpayer dollars and drive up the price at the pump.
The fact is, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is about 95 percent full, with about 690 million barrels of oil in storage. Our nation has a significant stock of oil with which to deal with an embargo or other energy emergency.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an important part of our national energy policy. I have only asked for a one-year pause to see if prices can stabilize. As long as oil prices are as excessive as they are today, we are better off investing in alternative energy and long-term solutions that will lead us away from our dependence on foreign oil.
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan
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Washington, D.C.
(Dorgan, a Democrat, is one of two U.S. senators representing North Dakota in Washington, D.C.)
