Can't TPTB release some oil from the oil reserve to alleviate the situation?

[raccoon]

Can anybody help me out on this one?

[notadmblnd]

1. alleviate the situation?

Is sounds like you've bought into what they would have us believe is a shortage. I don't know about you, but I've yet to pull into a station that didn't have any?

IMHO, if there's any kind of shortage, it the kind that's been manufactured by the oil companies, to restrict production and run up the prices.

[reformedrethug]

4. Then you dont live where I do

There have been several days where a local station has been out of gas, the other day 2 were out of gas and 1 more was heading that way.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. The probem is less of oil than of refining capacity.

And the price of crude is more tied to the drop in the dollar than to supply.
Anyway, if you're rolling in record profits, why would you want to wreck a setup like this?

[iamjoy]

3. What Situation?

Oh, you mean high gas prices?

You must be young. You must not remember the oil embargo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

and why we created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve

It was not for us to have more cheap gas for our SUVs.

I feel horrible about low income people trying to make ends meet, but this so-called crisis is of our own doing and we should have started thinking of long term solutions to this years ago. The era of cheap gas is over and the sooner we realize that and deal with it, the better. Deal with it means working on the demand end of the problem, not the supply.

[NJmaverick]

5. Yes they could, but then the prices would drop

That's bush's position.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. 701 million barrels of oil wouldn't do much good when we use 21 million a day.

It would last a month.