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US strategic petroleum policy: New insights from the Research Division
The FRED Blog has used data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) to discuss the income-adjusted weight of gasoline prices and the price elasticity of demand for gasoline. Today, we discuss a related topic: the strategic use of petroleum reserves by the US Congress to ease gasoline prices. The FRED graph above shows data from the EIA about gasoline prices in each of the five “PADDs”—that is, Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts. These districts were drawn during World War II to help ration gasoline. Gasoline is no longer rationed, but the PADDs allow EIA data users to analyze patterns of ... (full story)