Petroleum reserves

For years, Democrats have blocked the development of America's oil reserves, often arguing that tapping such resources -- such as the potential of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska -- would do little to solve the nation's energy woes.

This line of thinking holds that the amount available -- and the estimates vary wildly, depending upon whom you believe -- is insignificant when measured against our daily imports, so why bother?

But on Tuesday, Senate Democrats joined with Republicans and voted to temporarily halt the shipment of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The reserve is a stockpile designed to protect the nation from an abrupt disruption in the supply of oil. It is currently about 97 percent full. But with the price of oil above $120 per barrel, the Bush administration faces pressure to stop the shipments -- which average about 70,000 barrels a day, or 0.33 percent of the country's daily usage -- and let the product be dumped on the open market.

"We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood."

Fine.

It's good to see Sen. Dorgan and his Democratic colleagues acknowledge that increasing domestic supply -- even by a relatively small amount -- might be beneficial to consumers and the nation at large.

Unfortunately, their grasp of basic economic concepts such as supply, demand and price remains in its infancy. Earlier in the day, Senate Democrats again blocked a Republican effort to open parts of Alaska and some offshore waters to oil development.

What would it matter, after all?