This is the right policy, for the wrong reason.

Lower gas prices?  Well it's the wrong reason to stop filling reserves.  Refining and speculation are more powerful bottlenecks than crude oil supply in retail gas pricing.

And of course this is too small an amount of demand to actually lower oil prices.  Congress is pandering before election time.

But it is the right policy to let reserves stand as they are.  Reduction of consumption should be the main thrust of government policy now.  Government purchasing contracts for mass produced plugin hybrids could actually get that process going.  And subsidies to consumers for using electric plugin "fuel" in their cars.

Geo heat exchange heating/cooling to replace fuel oil heating is another big oil reduction measure.  Subsidize it now!  

Another huge oil saving area would be to power tractors, trucks, and trains with biogas/natural gas.  It would save a lot of farming and trucking supported familes from bankruptcy too.  The natural gas saved by a move to geo heat exchange heating would come in handy as an oil replacement.

Tractors, trucks, and trains have the extra space and weight capacity to carry methane tanks.  

Congress needs to stop talking to lobbyists and read blogs like this.  I sent mine a link.  Wonder if he reads Grist?