The Biden administration announced it would sell barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ahead of summer season travel.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the administration would be “strategically releasing this reserve in between Memorial Day and July 4th” to ensure “sufficient supply flows to the tri-state and northeast at a time hardworking Americans need it the most.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration is laser focused on lowering prices at the pump for American families, especially as drivers hit the road for summer driving season,” Granholm added.
Though it was portrayed as a move by the White House, the sale was mandated by Congress as part of the bill to continue funding the government that was passed earlier this year.
The one million barrels will be released in 100,000 barrel increments over the next few months. The majority of the barrels will come from a gasoline storage site in Port Reading, New Jersey; some will come from another site in South Portland, Maine.
Congress also directed the Secretary of Energy to close the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve, which was established by former President Barack Obama circumventing Congress.
It has been regarded as a waste of resources as its capacity is very small and the supply has to be rotated regularly since gasoline expires quickly.
“As an analyst, this reserve never really made a whole lot of sense to have,” said Patrick De Haan, an analyst for GasBuddy.
Biden Plays Politics With Petroleum
This is not the first time the Biden administration has used the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to impact prices at the pump.
In 2022, Biden announced the largest release of oil from the reserves to-date, to much criticism from Republicans. It drained the stockpile to its lowest level since the 1980s.
At the time, he blamed the greed of oil companies for driving up the price of gasoline, despite the war in Ukraine causing buyers to reject Russian oil and drive up demand from other sources thus creating less overall supply and higher costs.
The headline is BS! Gasoline can NOT be stored! Gas degrades quickly and needs an additive to last even one year. Read the article carefully and you will see it’s actually oil that’s being released. The implication is the oil will be refined into gasoline.