Shale boom raises questions about Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Fuel Fix:

Sen. Ron Wyden wants the United States to rethink the size and scope of its emergency oil stockpile.

Because a surge of domestic oil production has pared the United States’ reliance on foreign crude, the country may not need to stash as much away in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Wyden, D-Ore., said in a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

“The recent shale boom is having a profound effect on United States energy policy” and making even relatively recent rules “at best irrelevant,” Wyden said. “In the case of the SPR, estimates on size are no longer in line with current net imports.”

The United States is obligated to hold at least a 90-day supply of net imports of crude oil in both public and private reserves, as part of its membership in the International Energy Agency. But based on current crude imports and domestic demand, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now contains enough oil to keep the country running for 106 days. Wyden said additional private reserves total 141 days.
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He is right about that.  We should also look at ethanol requirements which were imposed at a time of perceived scarcity.  The EPA does not have the common sense to stop those requirements on their own, so Congress should step in.