[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 25416]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          INTRODUCTION OF THE OIL PRICE SAFEGUARD ACT FOR 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 19, 2004

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the 
Oil Price Safeguard Act for 2004, a bill that would tackle the problem 
of petroleum market manipulation and today's skyrocketing oil costs.
  Specifically, the Oil Price Safeguard Act would require the President 
to make a decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve 
if prices stay above $35 per barrel for two consecutive weeks (last 
year's average daily price was about $31 per barrel), and require 
direct oversight reporting to the House Commerce Committee and Senate 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  The U.S. government currently keeps oil in the strategic petroleum 
reserve for national security purposes, and to deal with short-term 
economic problems that could arise from oil shocks. Currently, there 
are 669 million barrels of oil in the reserve--enough to last 90 days 
if all foreign sources of oil were denied to the United States. Since 
the creation of the SPR in the early 1970s, it has only been used 
once--during the first Gulf War. After the SPR was drawn down during 
the first days of the Gulf War, crude oil prices dropped nearly $10 per 
barrel, which at the time was nearly a 50 percent price reduction.
  We must take action on this today, because the future energy outlook 
is grim. Consistently high oil prices have a devastating effect on 
Americans simply trying to heat and cool their homes, on small 
businesses just trying to keep up with the cost of doing business, and 
on the overall economy as more and more disposable income from people 
and business is bundled off to foreign countries to pay for oil. Future 
predictions are so dire that the October 2004 Short-term Energy Outlook 
published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) at the 
Department of Energy is predicting that in 2005, high world oil prices 
will begin to slow the pace of world economic growth and that high 
current and projected crude oil costs suggest that large reductions in 
average gasoline prices are unlikely anytime soon.
  The United States economy should not be held hostage to foreign oil 
interests. The effect of using the SPR during the early 1990s was 
clear. I urge my colleagues to join me to ensure that the President has 
every tool available at his disposal to fight rising oil prices that 
impact our economy and provide relief to the millions of Americans and 
small businesses affected by skyrocketing oil prices.

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