On Tuesday, The Conservative Review reported that the Biden administration has plans to sell another 26 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The article reports:
The barrels are set to hit the market from April to June, just as fuel prices are predicted to increase due to the summer driving season.
“Biden is front-loading SPR barrels to avoid a summer gasoline price spike,” Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group, told Fox Business Network. “There are growing concerns among the Biden administration that gas prices are headed back to $4 a gallon, and the president is fearful of the political heat he will have to take.”
“By pushing barrels forward from previously announced sales he is robbing Peter to pay Paul but is discouraging future U.S. oil and gas investment,” Flynn added. “There should be some backlash from Republicans who are getting tired of using the SPR for political purposes and creating short-term price relief in exchange for much higher prices down the road.”
This is happening at the same time the Biden administration is restricting oil exploration and drilling in the United States (which would be a much more reasonable way to bring down the price of gasoline).
The article notes:
When Biden took office, there were 638 million barrels in the SPR. As of this month, there are approximately 371.6 million barrels, the lowest amount since December 1983. With the latest announcement to sell another 26 million barrels, inventory will drop to 346 million, the lowest since August 1983.
The House recently passed bills that would restrict future sales of reserve inventory, including preventing the federal government from selling oil reserves to the Chinese government. The Republican majority in the House also passed legislation that would increase production in the United States by requiring the Department of Energy to develop a plan to allocate more federal land for oil and gas leasing prior to initiating a non-emergency drawdown from the SPR.
This is not intelligent American energy policy.