WingNews

rmason|3 years ago

Had no idea this was political at all or I wouldn't have posted it on here. Seems to me that the strategic reserve should be used to help America only seeing as how tax payers pay for it.

If an American oil company wants to sell their own production to China that would be OK. They shouldn't be able to use oil they procure from a release of the strategic preserve in my opinion. We store the oil to help buffer oil prices from interruptions in production.

omnicognate|3 years ago

The video linked by gp says the reason that's possible is that congress lifted a US crude oil export ban in 2015.

Since this is indeed a conservative talking point it's worth noting that the lifting of the ban was passed by a Republican-controlled congress over the objections of then-president Obama, who then signed it despite having previously said he'd veto any lifting of the ban, because the provision was tacked onto a "must-pass" omnibus spending bill. [1]

Of course the right thing here, if there is an actual problem, would be to have a debate about whether to put the ban back in place or make some law specifically about not exporting oil purchased from the strategic reserves, but apparently the Republicans would rather impeach Joe Biden for some reason.

[1] https://www.reedsmith.com/en/perspectives/2015/12/us-governm...

keybored|3 years ago

> Had no idea this was political at all or I wouldn't have posted it on here.

You asked

> > What I don't understand is why we're selling oil from the Strategic Reserve to China.

Yeah how on Earth could that even be a political question.

rapind|3 years ago

> Had no idea this was political at all or I wouldn't have posted it on here.

This might be true, but a lot of people see that and think "yeah right!". The problem when topics become political is any intelligent discussion gets suffocated.

> We store the oil to help buffer oil prices from interruptions in production.

Sort of, but it's a bit more nuanced I think (right or wrong).

From evergy.gov: ---- The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil was established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program. ----

You could easily argue that what they are currently doing is congruent with this mission by participating strategically in the global market.

I don't know that I agree with it being a good approach from my simpleton perspective, but I doubt it's being done as some sort of pro China move at least.

anm89|3 years ago

It isn't. The person above is trying to browbeat you for holding an opinion which is not advantageous to the election prospects of their preferred politician.

rightbyte|3 years ago

Isn't the reserve just a buffer? I.e. it does not matter if oil is from the reserve or some oil field directly.

And you want to rotate it anyway so it does not go bad.

lostlogin|3 years ago

> the strategic reserve should be used to help America

If it undermines the pricing China are getting from Russian, maybe it is helping the US tax payer.

robertlagrant|3 years ago

It's talked about by politicians, but it's a perfectly reasonable question outside of that.

Calling such questions "right wing talking points" is the only inappropriate politicisation.

megablast|3 years ago

Helping Americans dies t siesta mean making gas cheaper.

The higher the price of gas, the less people killed by cars.

landemva|3 years ago

This is the point which is overlooked - which of the enumerated powers granted by the people to the federal government allows the federal government to maintain a non-military oil reserve for the purpose of manipulating worldwide prices? Let companies and the free market supply oil.

roenxi|3 years ago

I will save the room 5 minutes, the major points in this video seem to be (a) the speaker doesn't like Marjorie Greene and (b) points out roughly that oil is a commodity, and if released into the market is going to get sold to whoever pays the most. That might be anyone in the world.

I do agree - it is a mistake to focus on where the oil is being sold. What is more interesting is that the strategic reserve is not being used strategically. I would argue it is being used ineffectually, the problems here go a bit deeper than what the SPR could possibly cope with. At this rate it is going to run out and not even make a marginal difference.

philjohn|3 years ago

The GOP lifted the ban on exporting from the SNR, and tacked it onto a "must pass" bill so Obama couldn't veto it. Blame them.

akira2501|3 years ago

Well.. what _strategic_ goals are we accomplishing with the "strategic petroleum reserve?" To sate the world market for a few days? Or, given the OPEC view, simply provide slight downward pressure on prices for a few weeks?

fny|3 years ago

That oil was bought around $30 sold at $100-$120 and now can be bought back sub $80. It was an incredibly good trade.

Spooky23|3 years ago

Obviously the government is taking actions to attack the post COVID price shocks, and has been reasonably successful in that process.

Seems pretty strategic as $5/gallon gasoline was really hurting consumers.

puffoflogic|3 years ago

I don't understand your point; that factcheck article confirms the accuracy of the statement that the US is selling oil from the strategic reserve to China (among other countries). It provides more context, yes, but it confirms the statement.

NLPlatypus|3 years ago

It’s a global oil market. If China wants to overpay, so be it.

anonu|3 years ago

Why downvote this comment? It's additive to the conversation... Why make it political when the comment is perfectly fine, stating another point of view?

thepasswordis|3 years ago

Linking to something Ana Kasparian says as if it is insightful is the equivalent to linking to Rudy Giuliana’s podcast, or Donald Trumps twitter clone as if it’s insightful.

It’s just absolute hyper hyper hyper partisan nonsense.

andy_ppp|3 years ago

Is there something wrong with this video? It seems pretty factual to me that oil is sold in an open market and companies just sell it to the highest bidder. Using the reserve like this is perfectly reasonable to avoid (more) chaos.

jimbob45|3 years ago

Ana Kasparian is a partisan left-wing hack. She’d be considered the partisan left-wing hack if her co-host, Cenk Uyghur, didn’t exist.

Granted, her video may or may not be factually correct but you might as well get your political coverage from Putin himself if you care this little about where it comes from.

rayiner|3 years ago

Just because someone points out facts that happen to be bad for the current administration doesn’t make it a “right wing talking point.” Even in political terms, criticism of a democrat isn’t necessarily aimed at “the right wing,” because the plurality of the population identify as independents.

mercy_dude|3 years ago

But that is what happens when you watch MSNBC and CNN, and the vice versa when you watch Fox. An entire generation now exists incapable of having intellectual arguments thinking beyond party line just because the people they follow in the media (social and news) continues to drive the argument in terms that is very close to derangement syndromes. Both sides are responsible but one one side is more amplified due to their majority presence in HN.

refurb|3 years ago

Yikes, take a look at the funding of factcheck.org.

Is Zuckerberg trying to buy indulgences?