A good energy policy = more than "knowing about drilling"

Today's Journal has a great op-ed piece about a component of Obama's energy plan that displays a deep understanding of the complexities of our energy policy.  Obama's plan identifies a problem with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), in that it's current composition is largely "light sweet crude", which is the most expensive and most easily refined.  However, US refineries have, over time, converted so that 40% of American refining capability is for heavier crude.  The current composition of the SPR means that, if we released the oil from the SPR in an emergency, refineries would be 5% less efficient (over 700,000 barrels/day) because they're not set up to refine the oil that's in the SPR.  Obama's plan would slowly swap out the light crude for heavy crude until the balance more clearly matches that of America's refining capacity, which would be helpful in an emergency and would have the additional benefit of bringing in up to $1 billion in revenue.

Granted, this is just one small part of the energy plan, but I think it demonstrates the fallacy that McCain/Palin has cornered the market on energy know-how because Palin "knows about drilling."  McCain's website doesn't appear to address the SPR at all, and his "energy issues" page is pretty limited.  

I think it's hard to underestimate the importance of electing a smart person who's actually interested in domestic policy for a change...