The saga of Political Gas continues:

With pump prices over $3 per gallon in some parts of the country, Bush said on Tuesday he would boost gasoline supplies by letting regulators relax clean fuels rules temporarily if state governors ask. He said he would free up more crude oil by delaying deliveries into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (emphasis mine)

Now, there’ve already been people flogging the hypocrisy of Bush playing games with the reserve when he bashed similar asshatery on his way to election, so I’m not going there. Rather, consider: what was the original point of the Strategic Reserve?

If the name itself doesn’t tell you enough, then Wiki will…

So, due to geopolitical conditions that may lead to an energy problem here, the price of gas is going up. Because of this, the reserve, which was created as a hedge against a future disruption, is being tapped. Mkay, gotcha.

One question though: Doesn’t this prove that hoarding oil was a f**king retarded move in the first place?!?