After the 1975 Arab oil embargo created fear and anger in gas station lines throughout the country, the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve was established. These underground reservoirs are believed to be the largest in the world and were created as an emergency oil-savings account in case of an actual energy crisis that could threaten national security.
The SPR was not designed to be used in a political crisis. Joe Biden’s Democrats are facing midterm defeat over inflation and ridiculous gasoline prices of $6 per gallon, both caused by the same president’s ideological war against fossil fuels.
Biden’s “plan” was widely criticized. It is to draw down one million barrels per day for 180 days from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is located in large underground salt caverns in Texas or Louisiana.
Each barrel of oil contains enough oil for 44 gallons worth of petroleum products. That’s quite a lot of fossil fuel going into the market.
It turns out that, contrary to all that was being said by the Biden administration about easing gasoline prices for his countrymen and other hype, consumers will not directly benefit from the use of American reserves.
Biden’s Energy Department sold millions of barrels of oil to the very same companies that the president is loudly blaming for their excessive profits on gasoline sales.
A lot of the oil that was recently taken from the SPR reservoirs now travels in huge oil tankers, en route from U.S. reserves to higher foreign market prices abroad.
It’s a hopeful bank shot by Joe Biden’s less-than-market-savvy administration that more oil on international markets will lower the prices American suppliers must pay for oil on those same markets to haul back and refine for American voters…I mean, for American drivers.
These are the people who find that their debit-card purchases exceed daily withdrawal limits after they’ve pumped a single tank.
Joe Biden is Joe Biden. He takes no responsibility for the US’s oil production being cut or rampant inflation through trillions of dollars in new spending.
Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked February invasion of Ukraine and uncertain outcomes in Moscow are what he blames for the rise in oil prices. The barrel prices soared from $90 up to $120. Since then, they have slowed somewhat.
Donald Trump’s final hours of office were 532 days ago. Such price explosions wouldn’t have been significant because the United States was energy independent thanks to its policies and deregulations.
In fact, during Trump’s years, the United States produced so much energy that it was exporting large quantities at high prices.
Joe Biden started to demolish that independence the day he was told where he should sit in Oval Office. The Keystone XL pipeline and its 40,000 jobs, which would have delivered 840,000 barrels daily of Canadian oil from Alberta through Texas refineries, were killed by Joe Biden.
Biden also canceled oil drilling leases and increased regulations to further his campaign promise to end the U.S. fossil fuels industry and its thousands of workers. He also banned new sales on tracts on and off-shore and raised federal royalties on wells that were already in operation.
There was a predictable result of less domestic oil in the future and now: greater imports at higher prices. Gas prices averaged $2.11 per gallon when Biden was elected. They reached $5.00 last month.
The United States bought 740,000 barrels of Russian oil per day for a while, even though Putin’s troops were bombarding the cities and towns of Ukraine.
Biden had to cancel the embargos because of domestic political pressures. He also led an alliance embargo on Russian oil and gas purchases, which Biden claimed would prevent Putin from generating billions of dollars to finance his invasion.
Unfortunately, oil prices soared further due to the U.S. president’s embargo.
As we have shown, the result was many new customers, who didn’t care much about Ukraine but are willing to pay higher prices. This sent billions of dollars into Putin’s Treasury for as much energy production and delivery as he could deliver.
Biden’s energy plan was designed to crush the U.S. fossil-fuel industry and thousands of jobs, and force Americans to become green. They would abandon their internal combustion engines in favor of electric vehicles starting at $55,000.
These vehicles would be powered using batteries that are charged by coal-fired generating stations, already overburdened and strained. Power companies are currently appealing to customers to reduce their energy consumption on hot summer afternoons in order to avoid brownouts.
This half-baked thinking reminds us of Biden’s failed Afghan withdrawal plans, and his empty plan to combat inflation at an 8.6 percent annual pace. It makes sense to Biden’s almost 80-year-old brain and his left-leaning aides.
The petroleum reserve is now at 86 percent of its 714 million-barrel capacity. Trump took advantage of lower oil prices to fill the caverns to its top.
While other presidents have authorized SPR releases, none are as large as Biden’s 180 million barrel drawdown. It will run up to – Oh! – November is election month.
George W. Bush approved the release of Hurricane Katrina victims in 2005. Barack Obama approved the use of 11,000,000 barrels in 2011 to alleviate market disruptions caused by the war against Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, which the Nobel Peace Prize winner initiated.
Biden Energy officials claim they will refill only one-third of the drawdown by the end of next year, when they expect, with the confidence and support of bureaucrats that oil prices will drop significantly.
Biden will use 12.5 hours of fossil fuel next week to transport himself to Saudi Arabia. This is part of his ongoing charade to make it appear that he is helping American car owners.
Biden said that he believes some things and that he isn’t focusing on the main goal of his visit to Saudi Arabia. The key word here is “main”. OPEC has already rejected a Biden request. Joe Biden wants to compare the desert sand to his Delaware beach house.
