[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3608 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3608

To provide the Secretary of Energy with authority to create a Fuel Oil 
  Product Reserve to be available for use when fuel oil prices in the 
United States rise sharply because of anticompetitive activity, during 
   a fuel oil shortage, or during periods of extreme winter weather.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 9, 2000

  Mr. Sanders (for himself, Mr. Boehlert, Mr. Larson, Mrs. Johnson of 
 Connecticut, Mr. Gejdenson, Mr. McHugh, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Shays, Mr. 
      Holden, Mr. Allen, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Frank of 
Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy of Rhode Island, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, 
    Mr. McNulty, Mrs. Jones of Ohio, Mr. Weygand, Mr. Delahunt, Mr. 
  Crowley, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Maloney of Connecticut, Mr. Baldacci, Mr. 
   Andrews, Mr. Sweeney, and Ms. Millender-McDonald) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide the Secretary of Energy with authority to create a Fuel Oil 
  Product Reserve to be available for use when fuel oil prices in the 
United States rise sharply because of anticompetitive activity, during 
   a fuel oil shortage, or during periods of extreme winter weather.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Home Heating Oil Price Stability 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) a sharp, sustained increase in the price of fuel oil 
        would negatively affect the overall economic well-being of the 
        United States, and such increases have occurred in the winters 
        of 1983-84, 1988-89, 1996-97, and 1999-2000;
            (2) the United States currently imports roughly 55 percent 
        of its oil;
            (3) heating oil price increases disproportionately harm the 
        poor and the elderly;
            (4) the global oil market is often greatly influenced by 
        nonmarket-based supply manipulations, including price fixing 
        and production quotas; and
            (5) according to the June 1998 Department of Energy 
        ``Report to Congress on the Feasibility of Establishing a 
        Heating Oil Component to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve''--
                    (A) the use of a Government-owned distillate 
                reserve in the Northeast would provide benefits to 
                consumers in the Northeast and to the Nation;
                    (B) the Government would make a profit of 
                $46,000,000 from drawing down and selling the 
                distillate;
                    (C) consumer savings, including reductions in jet 
                fuel, would total $425,000,000;
                    (D) there are a number of commercial petroleum 
                storage facilities with available capacity for leasing 
                in the New York/New Jersey area; and
                    (E) it would be cost-effective to keep a Government 
                stockpile of approximately 2,000,000 barrels in leased 
                storage in the Northeast, filled by trading some crude 
                oil from the Government's strategic reserve of oil for 
                the refined product.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF FUEL OIL PRODUCT RESERVE.

    The Secretary of Energy shall immediately create a fuel oil reserve 
containing 2,000,000 barrels of heating oil in leased storage 
facilities in the New York Harbor area and 4,700,000 barrels of heating 
oil in one of the four Strategic Petroleum Reserve caverns in the Gulf 
Coast. The Secretary of Energy may fill this heating oil reserve by 
trading crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for heating oil.

SEC. 4. DRAWDOWN OF FUEL OIL PRODUCT RESERVE.

    The President may immediately draw down the Fuel Oil Product 
Reserve only when fuel oil prices in the United States rise sharply 
because of anticompetitive activity, during a fuel oil shortage, or 
during periods of extreme winter weather.

SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated $125,000,000 to the 
Secretary of Energy for the period encompassing fiscal years 2000 
through 2019 for the purpose of carrying out this Act.
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