A Glut Of Oil At Cushing, the Coast -- Plan "B" -- Release Oil From Strategic Petroleum Reserve Before the Election

Updates

August 17, 2012: from Oil and Gas Journal -- oil prices rise despite talk of SPR release. See note below. 

August 17, 2012: The IEA "bases our actions on data and reality. The market is sufficiently supplied," reporters were told in Houston -- in response to the president's suggestion to dust off "Plan B" -- tap the SPR.

Analysts suggest tapping the SPR will raise prices; we've been through this analysis before. Apparently the White House bases their actions on political data, fantasy, and ideology.

Original Post

Link here.

The White House is "dusting off old plans" for a potential release of oil reserves to dampen rising gasoline prices and prevent high energy costs from undermining the success of Iran sanctions, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Thursday.

U.S. officials will monitor market conditions over the coming weeks, watching whether gasoline prices fall after the September 3 Labor Day holiday, as they historically do, the source said.

It was too early to say how big a drawdown would be from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and, potentially, other international reserves if a decision to proceed was taken, the source said.

Oil prices have surged in recent weeks, with Brent crude prices closing in on $120 a barrel, up sharply from around $90 a barrel in July. The United States and other Group of Eight countries studied a potential oil release in the spring but shelved the plans when prices dropped.

Yeah, like that will help. The incumbent. 

By the way, whatever happened to Keystone XL 2.0?