Gore Urges Clinton to Tap Strategic Oil Reserve

Sept. 21 -- Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore is calling on President Clinton to tap the nation’s emergency oil stockpile to combat decade-high oil prices.

“Today, there are families … all across the country who are wondering how they are going to be able to pay for heat this winter,” Gore told supporters gathered at a heating oil distributor in southern Maryland this morning. “We have to change that.”

The way to change it, the vice president said, is to put on the market some of the nearly 600 million barrels of crude oil known as the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

“We cannot just wait around,” Gore insisted. “Families need action now.”

Strategic Decision?

But Republican candidate George W. Bush accused his opponent of playing politics with the nation’s energy policy, arguing the reserve should only be tapped in a national emergency.

“That’s bad public policy,” Bush said this afternoon. “The strategic reserve is an insurance policy meant for a sudden disruption of our energy supply or for war.”

“The strategic reserve should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices right before an election,” Bush continued. “It should not be used for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term national security.”

The Bush campaign seized on a newspaper report that Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has advised the president that tapping the reserve “would be a big mistake.” Summers wrote in a memo to Clinton that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan shared his objections to the idea, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

“Al Gore likes to boast about his economic team’s sage advice and their stewardship of the economy,” said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett. “But now, 47 days before the election, Al Gore is ignoring their advice in a transparent attempt to cover up eight years of failed energy policies.”

One administration official told ABCNEWS that Summers’ comments were taken “out of context” and pointed out that the memo quoted by the paper was written a week ago when oil prices were substantially lower.