(08-09-2009 02:32 AM)JOwl Wrote:  

(08-08-2009 10:33 PM)Rick Gerlach Wrote:  

(08-05-2009 04:02 PM)JOwl Wrote:  [quote='tanq_tonic' pid='4522595' dateline='1249498300']
[quote='JOwl' pid='4522041' dateline='1249487002']

If I were saying that US military usage of oil is an oil subsidy, then I'd see the relationship -- but I'm not. I'm solely talking about US government expenditures related to mitigating threats to our uniterrupted access to oil.
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If the SPR is meant to mitigate threats to our MILITARY'S access to oil, I still can't grasp how it's a subsidy in any way shape or form.

In an earlier post you mentioned that if this 'subsidy's cost' could be passed off to someone else as it rightfully should, then it would be all the better if we could allocate the government spent subsitdy to encouraging alternative energy instead. (I'm paraphrasing a little, but that's what it seemed to boil down to, at least to me)

I'm not sure who pays for national defense BUT the government, so I can't see who else COULD pay for it . . . but more to the point, if the SPR is meant to guarantee supply in light of potential military needs, how could we eliminate the need for this subsidy? Wind power? Solar power? I guess nuclear power has some application as we have (had?) nuclear subs and carriers.

But planes, tanks, copters?

The argument that this is a subsidy seems like a tremendous stretch.

Interesting hypothetical, but wrong. The SPR isn't dedicated to protect the US military. It is meant to protect the nation from interruption in crude supplies. To the extent that both civilians and the military depend on oil, the SPR protects both.
The subsidy cost should be passed through in the price of oil, forcing both civilians and the military to make more economically efficient decisions with respect to oil consumption.

Maybe I'm just dense, but I just don't see that the SPR, if it is held at a relatively static level, and is not increased perpetually, can actually impact the price of oil at any appreciable level, given that it is static and limited in capacity.