The new war over oil

  • 09/02/2000

  • Newsweek (New York)

Outrage at the gas pump is spilling over into U.S. presidential politics. Vice President Al Gore labeled oil prices a "national crisis" and urged President Clinton to tap the nation's 570 million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help moderate prices this winter. On Friday, the administration compiled, authorizing the release of 30 million barrels from the reserves, a supply created in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo.