Dem chorus for strategic oil release grows

Other lawmakers calling on Obama to consider a release from the SPR in recent days include Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who heads the Commerce Committee, and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

The new letter comes as oil prices are again above $100-per-barrel in Friday NYMEX trading. Some Democrats are trying to parry GOP calls for wider offshore drilling, which have escalated amid the price surge and turmoil in Libya and the Middle East.

“Unlike drilling for additional oil, which won’t reduce our fuel prices in the near term, we know that releases from the SPR work quickly to lower gas prices. When President George H. W. Bush announced that he was authorizing a drawdown in 1991, oil prices fell by nearly $10 per barrel the next day,” the Democrats’ Friday letter states.