Use American Oil to Fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Now

Yes, simple problems have simple solutions. Or do they? Most existing refining capacity in the US is geared towards much heavier grades than the comparatively light and sweet shale oil. In theory, light and sweet is what you want as it gives you a lot of what you want out of a barrel. But when your refineries are tooled for heavy and sour, they can’t process the lighter grades easily. They would have to be retooled which takes a lot of time and is a CAPEX item that’s hard to swallow for short-term developments. If you cannot be sure about what future presidents will do about shale, you are not going to spend billions for retooling. Giving shale drillers long-term stability would do wonders. 

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