Bush Won't Veto Bill Halting Shipments to Oil Reserve

The White House said that President Bush would not veto a final bill from Congress that orders a halt to filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while oil prices are very high.

The Senate late on Wednesday approved a measure previously cleared by the House of Representatives that would stop deliveries of crude to the US emergency petroleum stockpile until the price of oil fell below $75 a barrel.

U.S. light, sweet crude oil was trading around $126 a barrel on Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Supporters of the legislation said the average 70,000 barrels of oil a day going into the reserve should instead be put into the market to help lower record oil and gasoline prices. However, many energy experts believe the extra supplies would have little effect on cutting fuel costs.