It was mainly always discussed under the context of getting heating oil to northeastern homeowners. When it actually was done under a Democrat President, it was solely for the purpose of enriching pals of the administration and DNC. All sorts of ‘pals’ came out of the woodwork, formed oil companies and inserted themselves into the oil supply system as another seller middleman, adding more cost to the final product. They never even touched or handled a drop of oil. I remember reading about one of these pals operating out of an apartment in NYC.
It all started with Al Gore’s Reinventing Government, which meant turning over essential government functions to crony capitalists to bring the efficiencies of the private sector to thoroughly ripping off the people and giving little in return.