Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Insanity of Obama Releasing Oil From the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Last Thursday morning, it was leaked that President Obama and UK's Prime Minister David Cameron have agreed to release oil from each country's strategic oil reserves. If true, this is just insane. Obama tried this just recently and it didn't work.

Last year, on June 23rd, President Obama announced that he was releasing 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). At that time, Obama did this to counter the increases in oil prices that had resulted from all the turmoil of the Arab Spring. Oil prices did go down; somewhat. But, after only two weeks, the price of oil was back to where it had been before the "release" was announced.

On a logical basis, this latest intention by Obama certainly plays into Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." But, in the world of politics, acting insanely and getting headlines is all that matters; even if the benefit is extremely short-lived. While the White House spokesperson claims this rumor to be completely false, I'm betting just the opposite. And, later this year, closer to the Fall elections, Obama will release a significant amount of reserves in order to drive oil prices down; proving that he "does care" about high oil prices. However, what he really cares about is his reelection.

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