The U.S. Energy Department announced on Friday it will comply with the measure sought by the Congress to no longer add millions of barrels of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a move implemented with the intention of battling fuel costs.

The Energy Department made the announcement after the Congress passed a bill ordering Bush administration to stop adding oil into the emergency stockpile until crude prices fall below $75 per barrel.
 
The move comes on the background of historic high fuel prices. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, oil traded at a record price of $128 a barrel on Friday. The average price of regular unleaded gasoline nationwide hit a new high of $3.73 per gallon angering the US citizens.

After a 97-1 vote for the bill in the Senate, the House of Representatives voted 385-to-25 in favor of the bill, more than enough to override a possible presidential veto of the measure.

US President George Bush had threatened to veto the bill arguing that this measure wouldn’t work.

However, most energy analysts said the measure will have little effect. According to their estimations, the measure will lower the gas price with just a few pennies per gallon. Nevertheless, those supporting the bill said it is wrong to keep filling the emergency stockpile, which is 97 percent full anyway, while the crude oil is reaching record highs.

"We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who endorsed the bill.

"When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood."