I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3608
To provide the Secretary of Energy with authority to create a Fuel Oil
Product Reserve to be available for use when fuel oil prices in the
United States rise sharply because of anticompetitive activity, during
a fuel oil shortage, or during periods of extreme winter weather.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 9, 2000
Mr. SANDERS (for himself, Mr. BOEHLERT, Mr. LARSON, Mrs. JOHNSON of
Connecticut, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr.
SHAYS, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. ALLEN, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr.
FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island, Mrs. MCCAR-
THY of New York, Mr. MCNULTY, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. WEYGAND,
Mr. DELAHUNT, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. MALONEY of Con-
necticut, Mr. BALDACCI, Mr. ANDREWS, Mr. SWEENEY, and Ms.
MILLENDER-MCDONALD) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Commerce
A BILL
To provide the Secretary of Energy with authority to create
a Fuel Oil Product Reserve to be available for use when
fuel oil prices in the United States rise sharply because
of anticompetitive activity, during a fuel oil shortage,
or during periods of extreme winter weather.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Home Heating Oil
Price Stability Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
(1) a sharp, sustained increase in the price of
fuel oil would negatively affect the overall economic
well-being of the United States, and such increases
have occurred in the winters of 1983–84, 1988–89,
1996–97, and 1999–2000;
(2) the United States currently imports roughly
55 percent of its oil;
(3) heating oil price increases disproportionately
harm the poor and the elderly;
(4) the global oil market is often greatly influ-
enced by nonmarket-based supply manipulations, in-
cluding price fixing and production quotas; and
(5) according to the June 1998 Department of
Energy ‘‘Report to Congress on the Feasibility of
Establishing a Heating Oil Component to the Stra-
tegic Petroleum Reserve’’—
(A) the use of a Government-owned dis-
tillate reserve in the Northeast would provide
benefits to consumers in the Northeast and to
the Nation;
(B) the Government would make a profit
of $46,000,000 from drawing down and selling
the distillate;
(C) consumer savings, including reductions
in jet fuel, would total $425,000,000;
(D) there are a number of commercial pe-
troleum storage facilities with available capacity
for leasing in the New York/New Jersey area;
and
(E) it would be cost-effective to keep a
Government 
stockpile 
of 
approximately
2,000,000 barrels in leased storage in the
Northeast, filled by trading some crude oil from
the Government’s strategic reserve of oil for the
refined product.
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF FUEL OIL PRODUCT RESERVE.
The Secretary of Energy shall immediately create a
fuel oil reserve containing 2,000,000 barrels of heating oil
in leased storage facilities in the New York Harbor area
and 4,700,000 barrels of heating oil in one of the four
Strategic Petroleum Reserve caverns in the Gulf Coast.
The Secretary of Energy may fill this heating oil reserve
by trading crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
for heating oil.
SEC. 4. DRAWDOWN OF FUEL OIL PRODUCT RESERVE.
The President may immediately draw down the Fuel
Oil Product Reserve only when fuel oil prices in the United
States rise sharply because of anticompetitive activity,
during a fuel oil shortage, or during periods of extreme
winter weather.
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There 
are 
authorized 
to 
be 
appropriated
$125,000,000 to the Secretary of Energy for the period
encompassing fiscal years 2000 through 2019 for the pur-
pose of carrying out this Act.
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