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The gas is cheap. The Trump administration isn’t saying who’s paying for it. (www.politico.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/politics@lemmy.world
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I bet it's my taxpayer money.

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[–] 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

Is that how the reserve works though?

Here in Australia the reserve isn't a bunch of big tanks owned by the government. Its a legislative mechanism requiring fuel retailers to hold a reserve.

It wouldn't make sense for the government to own or manage a reserve because it needs to be cycled constantly (petrol deteriorates quickly, diesel too but less so), and they'd need to replicate skills from the fuel industry.

That being the case I don't think there's a big tank of fuel owned by the government.

Edit: ok it seems I'm absolutely wrong about this.

The federally-owned oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites along the coastline of the Gulf of America. The sheer size of the SPR (authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool in foreign policy.

https://www.energy.gov/hgeo/opr/strategic-petroleum-reserve

Sorry Americans.

As an aside, I don't understand how this works because it's certainly true that fuel doesn't last forever. Maybe you can store raw unprocessed oil indefinitely but not fuel.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    Found here

    SPR oil is sold competitively when the President finds, pursuant to the conditions set forth in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), that a sale is required. Historically, the President has authorized emergency releases from the SPR on four occasions.

    In short, yes I believe this to be the case

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Disclaimer I'm not American, and I don't really have much actual knowledge on this subject.

    ...but I THINK the US presidents can actually do this. I'm not sure what the legal mechanism is, but I do remember some chatter some15 years ago about Obama releasing the reserves. This makes me believe that the strategic reserve builds up during normalcy, and can be drained through executive action.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago

    The SPR holds mainly crude oil, so you can't just open a gas station and start selling it. It has to be sent to a refinery first, and once that happens the product that comes out is fungible.

    In short it would be logistically simpler to just buy gasoline on the market and subsidize it. The subsidy is only 20-30 cents / gal as well.

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