Reducing Oil Prices

Due to unrest in the Middle East the price of oil has skyrocketed as of late. Except much of the high oil prices aren’t due to unrest in the Middle East (which should be obvious by the fact we get most of our oil from Canada) but from government interference in the energy market. Although the entire article is a good read this part made me shake my head the most:

The SPR program is ridiculous: Oil companies invest in drilling oil wells. They pump the oil out of the ground. The federal government then uses tax dollars to purchase the oil and pump it into salt caverns 2,000–4,000 feet beneath the ground. If we want to use the oil, we will have to pump it out of the ground a second time. We pump oil out of the ground, pump it back into the ground, and then pump it out again. It would be more efficient to store the oil in its original underground formation and allow private oil companies to decide when to pump it out.

Only a government could come to the realization that pumping oil out of the ground only to put it back into the ground and pump it out again at a later date makes good sense. Of course this is all done at taxpayer expense to boot.