Defending the Strategic Petroleum Reserve: response to the Cato Institute essay ‘The case against the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Beaubouef, Bruce

Affiliations: Houston, Texas. [email protected]

Note: [] Bruce Beaubouef received his Ph D in History from the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve programme has been accepted for publication by Texas A&M University Press.

Abstract: In November 2005, the Cato Institute issued ‘The Case Against the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’. Its authors, Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren, argued that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve had become an anachronism, and that the government should terminate the programme and sell all the oil. Unfortunately, their arguments and evidence were often flawed and sometimes erroneous, and their conclusion, coming as it does in an era of increasing energy insecurity, could not be more misplaced.

DOI: 10.3233/IJR-120055

Journal: International Journal of Regulation and Governance, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 137-154, 2006