President George W. Bush said on Tuesday there was no quick fix to lowering record fuel prices and that oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be saved for supply emergencies. "The SPR is for emergencies," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference. He said "there is no immediate fix" to lowering record-high fuel prices.
However, Bush said if Congress passed legislation to boost US oil production that would change the "psychology" in the energy market about concerns over future oil supplies, and that would affect prices. Bush on Monday lifted the White House's almost two-decades-old executive order that banned oil drilling along most US coastal states and called on Congress to end its separate drilling moratorium.
"I readily concede that (expanded offshore drilling) it's not going to produce a barrel of oil tomorrow, but it is going to change the psychology that, you know, demand will constantly outstrip supply," the president said. Bush said that speculators are not to blame for higher oil prices and it is the market fundamentals of tight supplies and strong demand that are pushing up crude costs. "The fundamentals are what's really driving the long-term price of oil," he said. "Demand for oil has increased and supply has not kept up with it."