The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it will release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gas prices for Americans ahead of the holiday travel season.
President Joe Biden will authorize the release of 50 million barrels of oil, hoping that the increase in supply will help to lower costs at gas stations across the country.
Costs are due to increased demand following the relaxation of pandemic-related restrictions on travel. Oil and gas supplies, meanwhile, have not caught up to the increases in demand, energy experts have said.
Even though presidents have very little impact on the cost of a gallon of gas, Biden has faced sharp criticism from conservatives on fuel prices, with many Republicans wrongly asserting that his energy policies — including the shutting down of the Keystone XL pipeline project earlier this year — contributed to the rise in gas prices over recent months. Experts largely agree that the closing of the Keystone XL is not responsible for current gas prices.
However, polling indicates most Americans blame Biden for the rise in gasoline and other consumer costs.
The Biden administration claims that opening the nation’s strategic oil reserve this week will alleviate those concerns — but experts say that this, too, will have minimal effect.
“American consumers are feeling the impact of elevated gas prices at the pump and in their home heating bills, and American businesses are, too, because oil supply has not kept up with demand as the global economy emerges from the pandemic,” the White House said in a statement. “That’s why President Biden is using every tool available to him to work to lower prices and address the lack of supply.”
But Patrick De Haan from GasBuddy, a tech company that assists consumers in finding gas prices in their area, told The Washington Post that the impact on pricing will be small, if anything at all.
“The bottom line for motorists is this moves the needle — but barely, and maybe not for a very long period of time,” De Haan said.
There’s also a concern among many that opening the strategic reserves could make other oil-producing countries upset, including nations belonging to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which could reduce supply in response to the White House’s actions.
The move also contradicts Biden’s promise to encourage more use of more renewable energy and reduce dependence on nonrenewable sources. But many Democrats, including those who are pushing for a transition away from oil and gas, lauded Biden for his decision on Tuesday.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), who along with other Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to the White House yesterday urging the opening of the oil reserves to lower prices, said that ultimately a move to renewable sources has to be the primary goal.
“In the long term, we must invest in renewable energy through the Build Back Better Act,” Khanna said in a tweet Tuesday morning.
The Department of Energy said that most of the oil that is being released will be made available in the early months of 2022, from January to April. Some deliveries of the oil, however, will happen as soon as December.
Gas prices have climbed in recent months, up to $3.395 per gallon, on average, across the U.S. as a whole. In places like California, the cost of a gallon of gas is up to $4.705 per gallon.
Costs may be coming down slightly due to other factors, however, that are unrelated to the opening of strategic oil reserves. Global demand may soon lessen due to COVID-related lockdowns in some parts of Europe, which may bridge the gap between demand and the supply of oil.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 98 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy