Joe Biden in March ordered the release of millions upon millions of barrels of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help address record-breaking gas prices. Gas prices are still high, and Biden continues to tap those reserves. But he has a plan. Once oil prices fall below $80/barrel we will restock it.
You are so thoughtful.
It was bad and we didn’t fill up our reserves when gas prices were so much lower.
Wait, Trump tried that. But he was stopped by Democrats.
Bloomberg reports that Trump was prevented by Democrats two years ago from filling the reserve when oil was hovering at $24 per barrel. Trump in March 2020 wanted to stabilize the oil sector after Covid-19 in 2020 had slowed global petroleum demand. The price of oil was $24 per barrel at that time, so the Republicans proposed spending $ 3 billion to replenish the reserve. The idea was quickly turned into a political game in larger negotiations for trillions of dollars in coronavirus relief. Senator Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer declared that his party had prevented a “bailout to big oil.”
This was a very costly decision. Bloomberg reports that the Democrats’ arrogance over “big oil profits” cost the United States billions of dollars. This was not to mention the fact that there was less supply.
The Biden administration refutes Bloomberg’s report, which claims they have no plan to replenish reserves until at most 2023. It’s not clear how this is supposed to make us feel better. The resource is at crisis levels.
Not a meme stock or a collapsing currency, this is America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and this is before today’s record release of 8.4mb, the largest ever. pic.twitter.com/yodSXxdjoO
— James Lavish (@jameslavish) September 12, 2022
