Keystone Today

Gas prices continue to be an issue for Americans with the price at the pump still in the high $4 range across the nation, and some lawmakers have criticized tactics by President Joe Biden, saying that he has been hypocritical.

According to Reuters, the Biden Administration has exported five million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to European and Asian countries last month. Industry sources told Reuters that cargoes of SPR crude were sent to the Netherlands and also to a reliance refinery in India, while a third cargo was sent to China. Phillips 66, which is the fourth largest U.S. oil refiner according to U.S. Customs data, shipped 470,000 barrels of sour crude from Big Hill SPR storage in Texas to Italy.

"Biden won't unleash American energy because of environmental concerns. Yet, he is shipping our oil to China—the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Talk about hypocrisy," Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona posted on Twitter.

In Pennsylvania, on July 10, the price of a gallon of gas was $4.794 as reported by AAA. The price has been trending in the right direction as it was $5.058 last month, but it is still much higher than a year ago when it was $3.22. The national average sits at $4.684, which has also seen a decline over a month ago when it was $4.986 but glaring when considering a year ago it was $3.143.

On March 31, President Biden announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) over the next 6 months, in his effort to curb high gas prices. Biden said there would be a slight delay in declining gas prices by days and weeks, but the prices would drop by an unknown range.

“It could come down fairly significantly,” Biden said in a press conference. “It could come down [to] a better part of anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon, it’s unknown at this point.”

Bloomberg reported that Biden is encouraging other countries to increase their oil production.

“All the Gulf states are meeting. I have indicated to them that I thought they should be increasing production,” Biden said in a June at a news conference in Madrid following a NATO summit. “I hope we see them, in their own interest, concluding that makes sense to do.”

Since President Biden entered office in 2021, he has made it a priority to end climate change and fossil fuels. He has signed a series of executive orders that prioritize climate change, as reported by CNBC.

One action he has taken to remove fossil fuels in America was killing the Keystone XL pipeline, as well as banning oil and gas leasing on federal land, which makes up about one fifth of total production in the U.S., according to a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Bloomberg reported that Biden will be traveling to Saudi Arabia this month, Bloomberg’s report says this will be a “significant moment for gasoline prices,” said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the only countries with spare capacity to pump crude oil. If they do not pledge to boost production, it could be a huge blow for Biden’s effort to alleviate the dire economic situation that has been exacerbated by the pain at the pump.