COCHRAN STATEMENT ON OBAMA DECISION
TO TAP STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE

Possible Short-Term Benefits Do Not Negate Need for More Gulf Energy Production

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today issued the following statement regarding President Obama’s decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to stabilize oil supplies and to force down gasoline prices:

“It may be politically expedient to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to attempt to alleviate the gasoline price shock experienced by some drivers, but I believe it is a mistake.  Any relief will be short-lived and leave us in the same position we are in today.  We are a nation in need of a proactive federal policy allowing more production of U.S. energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.”

Cochran, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is a member of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Department of Energy and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

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