Keystone Today

On March 31, President Joe Biden announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve over six months in an effort to curb the high gas prices. This move has irked some critics, who have said it is contradictory.

“Even though the Biden Administration wants to address rising carbon emissions, high gasoline prices cause incumbents to lose elections,” Senior Contributor Robert Rapier wrote in an op-ed for Forbes. “So, they try to tame gasoline prices even though it contradicts one of their key objectives of reducing carbon emissions.”

According to energy.gov, President Biden said there would be a slight delay in declining gas prices for an unknown time, and they would drop an unknown amount.  The SPR keeps about 700 million barrels of crude oil in case of unstable market supply or international emergencies, and the SPR website says it is the world’s largest supply which makes it a deterrent against oil cutoffs.

The SPR website states that as of April 1 the SPR held 564.58 million barrels of oil. As of Sept. 23, the inventory was 422.58 million barrels- a decrease of 142 million barrels since the release in March.

Rapier said Biden’s decision to tap into the SPR was a “gamble” hoping that the U.S. doesn’t encounter a foreign oil supply crisis. In 2010 the SPR was at its highest at 726.6 million barrels. The current amount is the lowest in nearly four decades. Rapier also argued that historically Democrats have recused the SPR more than Republicans, as President Clinton and Obama both reduced the SPR to battle high gas prices during election years. Rapier also felt this was the case with Biden, saying this SPR reduction was to help his party win in 2022. He predicts that the SPR will be refilled after the 2024 elections.

The latest Gasoline Misery Index shows that the average American is spending about $319 more on gas this year compared to last year. Pennsylvania residents are spending about $196 more on gas. The Misery Index tracks how much more, or less, the average American consumer spends on gas annually.

According to AAA, while gas prices have decreased over the last few months, the national average is rising as the supply becomes more limited and demand increases. A report by AAA says that drivers should prepare for high prices at the pump to return due to increasing crude oil prices and the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

In the op-ed, Rapier noted that the Biden executive order on federal soil and gas leases was released on Jan. 27, 2021, and he cited the climate crisis as the main reason. Biden said, "it is the policy of my Administration that climate considerations shall be an essential element of United States foreign policy and national security” according to whitehouse.gov. 

The order lays out ways the Administration will prioritize the climate crisis including “pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or in offshore waters pending completion of a comprehensive review.”