While The White House keep telling us it has lots of "tools" (to deal with near record high gasoline prices), it appears in reality their options are limited.

A month ago we detailed Goldman's warning that releasing oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) "could perversely prove inflationary instead."

Confirming what Goldman suggested, Stephen Nalley, the head of the EIA, told a Senate Hearing today that an SPR release would bring the price of a barrel of oil down only around $2.