This is genuinely brain dead stuff, at Domain:
The Morrison government has struck a landmark deal to tap into the US government’s tightly-guarded emergency fuel reserves, a move that will help lower the risk of Australia plunging into an economic and national security crisis.
The agreement, to be signed by Energy Minister Angus Taylor in Washington on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), will help shore up the dangerously low supplies in Australia that have left consumers vulnerable to price spikes and rationing in the event of a sudden supply disruption.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed last year that the government was in talks with the Trump administration to buy millions of barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Australia imports 90 per cent of its liquid fuels but only has enough in storage to last 54 days – well below the 90 days it is obliged to stockpile under an agreement with the International Energy Agency (IEA).
How many scenarios of oil shortage does this cover? Virtually none. Most are about war in the Asia Pacific when Australia will become the UK of WWII. Blockaded from the north and starved into submission in six weeks. What good will a US-based oil reserve do? Is it going to be emailed across the Pacific?
Scotty from Marketing is the national security risk.
