Hare votes to suspend filling oil reserves in hopes to drop gas prices

Congressman Phil Hare voted Tuesday for legislation to temporarily suspend the filling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the end of the year in order to reduce skyrocketing gas prices. The bill requires the DOE Secretary to suspend shipments to the SPR in 2008, or until the average price of crude oil falls below $75 a barrel. As of May 7th it was reported the SPR is holding 702 million barrels, with a maximum current capacity of 727 million barrels. Hare, who serves the 17th Congressional District which includes Western Illinois says while this is not a substitute for a long term energy policy that reduces our dependence on foreign oil, a temporary suspension of the SPR would provide working families long overdue relief at the pump. Filling of the SPR takes 70,000 barrels of oil off the market each day and a temporary suspension could reduce gas prices from 5 to 24 cents a gallon. President Bush has the power to stop filling the SPR and Democratic leaders, along with 16 Senate Republicans have urged him to do so. In 2000, after President Clinton released 30 million barrels from the SPR, the price of oil dropped by one third—from $30 to $20 per barrel.

Basco man killed in farming accident

A fatal accident occurred yesterday morning around 10 o'clock in Hancock County. The sheriffs office reports 63-year-old Gary Jacobs of West Point, was on a tractor pulling a field cultivator on county road 1150 East just south of 450 North when the cultivator lost a tire. The bucket loader on the front of a second tractor was then chained to the rear of the cultivator and a short distance later the other tire came off the cultivator and the first tractor pulled over into the ditch. This pulled the second tractor into the ditch and the steep bank and weight of the cultivator caused the second tractor to roll over, pinning the driver under the tractor. The driver of the second tractor, 80-year-old John Jacobs of Basco, was pronounced dead at the scene.