A temporary fix of gasoline prices

Indiana 9th District Rep. Baron Hill recently sent a letter to President George W. Bush requesting that he suspend purchases of fuel oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve  and let it flow into the open marketplace, increasing the supply of fuel to consumers with the idea of driving down the prices we all pay at the gasoline pump.

The letter, also signed by Kentucky Rep.  John Yarmuth, asks the president to direct the Department of Energy to temporarily stop buying oil for the reserve program and contends that doing so "would allow more oil to remain on the market, and thus drive down gas prices for consumers" by as much as a quarter a gallon of gasoline.

We agree with Hill's assertion that such an action should not be considered a long-term fix. It certainly is not. But as the congressmen pointed out in their letter to Bush, the request comes with precedence for short-term relief. The letter states that the strategic reserve is 95 percent full - about the same level it was when President Bush approved a temporary suspension to relieve supply and price crunches after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in summer 2005. 

Of course, a better long-term reaction would be for Congress to enact legislation that would lift restrictions on drilling for oil and allow market forces to better respond through development of alternative energy sources and more freely allow the construction of nuclear power plants. But for now, a temporary suspension of the reserve program could make sense.