The Department of Energy is planning to buy up to 5 million barrels of oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after a test sale last year.
The planned purchase of sweet crude between June 1 and July 31 is required by federal laws forcing the Department of Energy to buy back petroleum products within one year, using the proceeds from a test sale.
In this case, the recent collapse in crude prices means the government is set to make money on the two transactions — effectively buying low now after selling high last year.Pretty cool.
I was going to make a joke about "trapping wind in a bottle" so environmentalists could sell wind at "high" prices and buy wind at "low" prices, but it turns out they are already working on that. Bloomberg has the story from 2007.