The American public's failure to pay attention reached supernatural levels this week as our mass media gloated over falling gasoline prices to pre-hurricane levels. The news media took this to mean that all the end-of-the-summer trouble is over with and things can now get back to normal. What they failed to notice is this: Europe has been sending us 2 million barrels of crude oil and "refined product" a day from its collective strategic petroleum reserve.
Now, the important part of all this is that last week the International Energy Agency (IEA), Europe's energy security watchdog, declared that it would now end the 2 million barrel a day shipments to the US. After all, it is Europe's strategic reserve and they can't sell it all to us because, well, some strategic emergency might come up for them, too ...