Lawmakers are eyeing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a piggy bank, but not without controversy. The Senate is considering legislation that would partly replenish the U.S. highway trust fund with $9 billion worth of sales from the reserve, which at 695.1 million barrels of oil is close to its 713.5-million-barrel capacity. This month, the House passed a bill to sell 80 million barrels from the reserve to raise $7 billion to help pay for legislation to boost government drug approvals and research funding. But proposals to tap the nation’s oil stockpile as a way to pay for unrelated government programs have drawn opposition. The Senate Energy Committee chairman, the U.S. energy secretary and oil industry analysts all criticize the move as shortsighted. The sale of crude from the reserve is one of about 15 new funding sources that Senate leaders want to use […]