Book Description

Congress authorized the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA, P.L. 94-163) to help prevent a repetition of the economic dislocation caused by the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo. The Department of Energy (DOE) manages the SPR, which comprises five underground storage facilities, solution-mined from naturally occurring salt domes in Texas and Louisiana. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) authorized SPR expansion to a capacity of 1 billion barrels, but physical expansion of the SPR has not proceeded beyond 727 million barrels its inventory at the end of 2010. In addition, a Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve (NHOR) holds 2 million barrels of heating oil in above-ground storage. EPCA authorized drawdown of the Reserve upon a finding by the President that there is a "severe energy supply interruption." Congress enacted additional authority in 1990 (Energy Policy and Conservation Act Amendments of 1990, P.L. 101-383) to permit use of the SPR for short periods to resolve supply interruptions stemming from situations internal to the United States. The meaning of a "severe energy supply interruption" has been controversial. EPCA intended use of the SPR only to ameliorate discernible physical shortages of crude oil. The government had ended ...