U.S. To Make Pointless, Symbolic Effort to Lower Gas Prices Months After it Might Have Helped

I don't understand the timing of this:

@markknoller Energy Dept announces that US and Intl Energy Agency partners to release 60 million barrels of oil onto world market over 30 days.

Energy Secy Chu says US taking action in response to disruptions in Libya & other countries & their impact on the global economic recovery.

Of course, that oil was purchased by the U.S. Government at much lower prices and held in our strategic reserve, designed to protect the country from shortages or supply interruptions. It was never designed as a pricing tool.

And who's responsible for disruptions from Libya? We are, and since Libya provided very little oil to the United States, this release does basically nothing for us. What it does is help out European countries that relied on Libya for oil. That's pretty much the reason we went to war in Libya in the first place.

What makes this all the more mysterious is that oil prices peaked several weeks ago.  It hit $4.29 around here but yesterday I bought gas for $3.85.  Still way too high, but certainly not at the levels it once was and it still seems to be falling.

I think we've just weakened our strategic reserve for nothing.

Joe Taxpayer sums it up nicely:

BREAKING: Obama releases 30 million barrels of hope from the Strategic Reelection Reserve

UPDATE: Oil futures dropped significantly as this news came out which just reinforces something I've been saying for a long time - oil pricing is related more to psychology than supply-and-demand. Not one single drop of this oil has actually reached the market and increased supply, but pricing has dropped. What would prices have been like if Obama hadn't shut down oil drilling in the Gulf and had opened up other available sources, even if those sources couldn't produce for years? The psychological effect would have reduced pricing far below where it is today.