Senator Byron Dorgan

Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, aims to stop the expansion of the nation's oil reserves for one year. Believing increases make little sense with oil prices skyrocketing, Dorgan is including the proposal as part of an energy and water spending bill to be unveiled next week.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve now contains 690 million barrels of oil and has a capacity of 727 million barrels. The energy law signed by President Bush in 2005 directs the government to expand that capacity to 1 billion barrels, and Bush has requested $168 million in the next budget year to begin that expansion. - Yahoo News

President Bush has proposed the expansion of the reserve by even more - a reserve holding 1.5 billion barrels, filled by 2027.

Dorgan chairs the subcommittee that will consider the bill. He posits that the legislation would pause plans for expansion during budget year 2008, and temporarily prevent the department from replacing crude oil released two years ago following Hurricane Katrina.

"Expanding the reserve now means the government will be removing oil from the marketplace, decreasing supply, and putting upward pressure on gasoline prices at a time when gasoline prices are already at near-record levels," Dorgan said. - Yahoo News

Department of Energy spokeswoman Megan Barnett said the administration will work with Congress on the issue, and that "[e]xpanding the size of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves will provide an additional layer of protection for our nation's long term energy security and the time to begin planning is now."