Legislative Background
Recent Action on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Congress authorized the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in 1975, as part of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), to protect the Nation during an economic dislocation such as the one caused by the 1973-1974 Arab oil embargo. However, in the 1990s, congressional attention to the SPR waned, usurped by other issues. Among them: reducing Federal spending; the declining likelihood of prolonged and crippling oil supply interruptions; the apparently efficient operation of unregulated oil markets; and a consensus that the SPR was at an adequate level and that additions to it were unnecessary. In 1994, the Clinton Administration and Congress…
