*** A Top White House Official Said Today: Administration Is Studying Whether to Tap Oil Reserves (SPR) *** --

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Feb 6, 2000 - 02:01 PM

Administration Studies Whether to Tap Oil Reserves

By William C. Mann - Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration is trying to persuade world oil producers to put more oil on the market and is studying whether emergency U.S. stocks could or should be tapped to drive down prices, a top White House official said Sunday.

Ideally, "the market ought to set the price, but we're taking a look at what options we have under the authorities and under the laws of the United States," said John Podesta, the president's chief of staff said.

He was asked on "Fox News Sunday" about whether the administration would dip into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to force down the price from its current level of close to $30 a barrel. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said repeatedly last week he does not intend to do that.

Podesta said Richardson's contacts with oil ministers of producing countries - several already, with visits to Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico planned - are a major part of the administration's effort to bring down prices.

Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are meeting next month to consider whether to extend a production hold-down of 5 million barrels per day, which began in 1998 and expires March 31.

President Clinton released $45 million last week to help low-income people in the frigid Northeast with their heating bills. Podesta said in addition to such stopgap measures, "We're also trying to see what we can do to see if we can take some of the pressure off of oil prices" through raising market supplies.

To the suggestion the U.S. reserve was created only to compensate for disruptions in supply, Podesta said it "was put in place with its name in mind, to have a strategic reserve to make sure that we had an adequate supply of oil, and that's what it's used for."

But he said: "There are certain authorities under the law that are available, and we're taking a look at those."

The reserve, first suggested during World War II, was established in 1975. Its only use so far was a partial drawdown in 1991 at the beginning of the Persian Gulf War. That move by President Bush and production increases internationally maintained market stability and kept down oil price increases during the six-week war.

On other items, Podesta said:

-Although the president supports the death penalty, he has asked advisers for research into whether it should be suspended for federal crimes, as Gov. George Ryan did in Illinois. Ryan acted because of misgivings about the Illinois justice system, which has seen more death row inmates exonerated and freed since 1987 than have been executed since 1976.

"Given the facts in Illinois," Podesta said, "he's just asked us to get some more information."

-The United States has "made strong protests to the Russian government" over the fate of Andrei Babitsky, a Russian reporter for the U.S. government's Radio Liberty, who was arrested by Russian troops while covering the fighting in Chechnya. The Russians contend they turned Babitsky over to Chechen rebels in exchange for Russian prisoners-of-war, but the reporter has not been heard from and is considered by many to have been slain by Russian soldiers.

"We don't know his status, and we're obviously very concerned about it," Podesta said. "We have made our views known to the Russian government. We've pressed them on this."

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), February 06, 2000

Answers

Thanks for the posts snooze!

-- Dee (t1colt556@aol.com), February 06, 2000.

I expect that the Clinton admin. would prefer to have the oil shipments worldwide increased, rather than explain about the oil which has been supposedly taken from the SPR over the last decade and not replaced, as posted here this week. Don't have the link right handy.

-- Laurane (familyties@rttinc.com), February 06, 2000.

This is a tangent but I can't let this one slip by "...on other items, Gov. Ryan etc..." Ryan is re-examining the death penalty for one reason only, his a$$ is in the fire on corruption. When he was secretary of state in Illinois, his DMV bureau cronies used to offer phony crackerjack box class D licences at the testing facilities. In exchange for a rigged test(read campaign donation to his slush fund). This was all an open secret in Illinois until one of his unqualified truck drivers slammed into a minivan and killed a minister and his family. This .gov (and his equally slimy brother Tom Ryan, who was the mayor of Kankakee back in the 60's/70's) controlled their own little "apartheid" fiefdom based on racial segregation. I know I went to summer camp with George's triplet daughters....read rich brats. BTW, I have it on good authority their pharmacies were not welcome lunch counters for black patrons in the 1950's. The family sells life insurance on the one hand & a cigar store chain on the other. Corrupt And guess what, another political crony just got a contract to build a women's prison near Hopkin's Park, Illinois. The largest rural ghetto north of the mason/dixon line. Those last remaining black farmers in their 60's and 70's were just bought out so Ryan can build a rape factory with male guards out in the cornfields. The chickens will be coming home to roost for this one with a vengeance. Watch. It's like "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren come to life.

-- Sally Hemmings (286yrsinUSA@tslavery.com), February 06, 2000.

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