After shutting down energy projects, Biden to release strategic oil reserves for holidays

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The White House announced Tuesday that it will release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as a way to try to flatten the curve of rising fuel prices.

The move may surprise Americans, who witnessed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm laugh off a question about skyrocketing cost of fuel during a televised news interview on Nov. 5.

“[In] Sturgis, Michigan, it is $2.89 a gallon. I guess that’s better than in California,” Bloomberg Host Tom Keene said to Granholm during the interview, noting that gas prices had reached all-time highs. “What is the Granholm plan to increase oil production in America?”

“That is hilarious,” Granholm responded, throwing back her head and cackling with laughter on the Nov. 6 show. “Would that I had the magic wand on this. Oil is a global market. It is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is called OPEC, and they made a decision yesterday that they were not going to increase beyond what they were already planning.”

Watch the video clip at this Twitter link.

The cost in Sturgis, Michigan has since then risen to $3.19 a gallon. In Anchorage, drivers pay between $3.39 and $3.54 a gallon, while Californians are paying $4.70.

The Granholm laugh video, which went viral on social media, has cost the Biden White House enormously.

The president has a completely different message today. It’s now blaming the Covid-19 pandemic that it says forced an unprecedented global economic shutdown.

“As the world is re-opening from a near economic standstill, countries across the globe are grappling with the challenges that arise as consumer demand for goods outpaces supply,” the White House said in its statement, ignoring the fact that refining capacity is the real chokepoint in the supply-and-demand chain. A major refinery hasn’t been built in America in decades.

“But here in the United States, the economic recovery is stronger and faster than anywhere else in the world – according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the US is the only one of the major economies to have returned to pre-pandemic gross domestic product levels – in large part due to President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which funded and facilitated a nationwide vaccination program, provided resources to schools and small businesses to keep them open in the face of COVID waves and put money in the pockets of those hit hardest by the pandemic,” the White House said in a 95-word, run-on sentence.

In fact, 50 million barrels is barely a blip, compared to what is needed. The world goes through 100 million barrels a day.

Biden’s statement went on to explain how much more Americans have in disposable income this year — $100 a month — than last year, the president said, “even as COVID has continued to complicate the economic recovery around the world.”

And yet, the value of that dollar has shrunk due to Biden inflation. The consumer price index in Alaska, for example, is up 6.3 percent over last year.

Biden went on to say oil supply has not kept up with demand, but did not acknowledge his own actions in creating a supply problem by creating uncertainty for oil developers, producers, and financiers. On the first day of his administration, Biden attacked the energy sector by canceling the permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, and banned all oil leases on federal land.

In June, he drove a dagger through the leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and because the Biden Administration refused to ask for a court review of Federal Judge Sharon Gleason’s decision, the White House forced a new supplemental environmental review for the Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, which will delay or kill the project.

Earlier this month, Russia and member nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced they would not increase their oil production, even after Biden implored them to help Americans out.

Today, the president said he is working with countries across the world to address the lack of supply:

“And, as a result of President Biden’s leadership and our diplomatic efforts, this release will be taken in parallel with other major energy consuming nations including China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom. This culminates weeks of consultations with countries around the world, and we are already seeing the effect of this work on oil prices. Over the last several weeks as reports of this work became public, oil prices are down nearly 10 percent.”

The Department of Energy will make available releases of 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in two ways:

  • 32 million barrels will be an exchange over the next several months, releasing oil that will eventually return to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the years ahead. The exchange is a tool matched to today’s specific economic environment, where markets expect future oil prices to be lower than they are today, and helps provide relief to Americans immediately and bridge to that period of expected lower oil prices. The exchange also automatically provides for re-stocking of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over time to meet future needs.
  • 18 million barrels will be an acceleration into the next several months of a sale of oil that Congress had previously authorized.

Oil analysts were unimpressed: “They are trying to put a bandaid on an arterial bleeding, it just doesn’t work. It’s the EPA, the permitting process, and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions related to permitting of refining capacity that will cause prices to stay high for long time,” said one analyst, who predicted that the effect from the release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be short-lived, since the chokepoint is really at the refineries.

The president went on to blame the oil industry itself for not lowering the prices at the pump.

“There is mounting evidence that declines in oil prices are not translating into lower prices at the pump. Last week, the President asked the Federal Trade Commission to examine what is going on in oil and gas markets and to consider “whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump,” the White House said.

The messaging from the White House may appear incoherent, considering that just three weeks ago in Glasgow, Scotland, Biden told the Global Climate Summit that the world must drastically reduce the use of petroleum in order to save a warming planet.

28 COMMENTS

      • Totally agree. The handlers and string-pullers of biden (obama, jarrett, et al) are using him to force us into the globalist reset. Unless (firmly and wholly) stopped, it will be the end to our sovereignty, our freedoms, including personal property. Those that disagree, read some history. They know time is not on their side, which is why they are moving so fast and reckless.

  1. Current US consumption is 20 mil. barrels a day so this amounts to 2-1/2 days worth.
    Also consider this is the same as eating seed corn in non drought years. That’s not what
    this oil is reserved for.
    Trump had us oil independent in 4 years.
    Let’s go Brandon destroyed that in less than a year, but for the communists this is a feature, not
    a bug.

  2. So he shuts down Keystone, he destroys America’s energy independence and then blames it on COVID? What a “leader”. He has yet to take responsibility for ANYTHING he has destroyed. Unity? No new taxes? Make the rich pay their fair share? His BBB budget gives *retroactive* tax breaks to 2/3 of the richest Americans… predominantly coastal democrats!
    .
    And now he slips the knife into the ribs of the middle class. But hey ho! No more mean tweets!
    .
    I hope you mindless Biden voters are proud of yourselves.

  3. Has anyone seen our three representatives demand the Biden administration to end their fiat over the management of our natural resources?
    The erratic policy shifts cuased by politicians create turmoil for the safe and efficient development of natural resources. It’s time Alaska, to send representatives to DC who are willing to break hearts and engage minds in an effort to protect good paying jobs that pay mortgages, that put food on the table, and keep oil in our furnaces. Development that keeps our communities running, schools open, and healthcare operating.
    It’s time Alaska to put Freedom and Liberty ahead of the political social agenda machine. It’s time for a 3rd party.

  4. I wish that demented old fool and his sidekick would be impeached out of office already…this is beyond reckless and dangerous what he’s been doing. He’s leaving a HUGE damned mess for the next president to try and clean up.

  5. In approx one year Biden will personally be responsible for the GOP taking control of both the House and the Senate. Things will then quickly change for the better. And in 2024, assuming that he is still around, he will lose the presidential race by a staggering amount. Even my many liberal friends are sick and tired of him and K Harris.

    • Things will only be ‘better’ if we avoid electing spineless, go-along, get-along RINO’s and elect those with backbones made of titanium. Otherwise, it will be more of the ‘uniparty’, thus the other side of the same coin…

  6. So, lemme get this straight: The POTUS, with his administration decided to derail the gains we made with domestic production of crude which resulted in higher prices less than a year in his presidency and then BOOM, he saves the day by releasing oil from the reserve. The sad part of this story are the folks who truly think he was originally responsible for the issue he’s “fixing” to begin with. Typical Democrats; create a crisis and then “save the day”.

  7. The first criteria for working in the Biden administration is that you must be incompetent and Granholm meets the test.

  8. With biden’s numbers in the lower 30s, he’s desperate to try anything. Short of starting a war, or telling us who killed Kennedy and where the Roswell aliens are, the best he can do is create a problem and then rightfully so thinking that Americans have a short memory, release oil reserves to bring down the cost. Our governor down here just suspended all oil tax revenue the state is collecting at the pump so that’s an automatic 25 cents a gallon right there. If Brandon would do the same then it might get my attention instead of this bait and switch thing he’s trying to pull off now.

    • Heck, last I heard, the Fed is “printing” all the money they want, I mean, need, for all their new programs. How about just canceling most income taxes this year? Truly, they are printing all they need, and that cancelation would be stimulating. You know, allowing folks to take their own money and spend it in their own economy!
      I think that might be too out-of-the-box thinking though, to dispense with annual theft, even if it rescued a dying economy.

    • Biden is starting a war with China – by not making any definitive statements about China’s aggressive moves against Taiwan – by not making any solid commitments to defend Taiwan- by preferring Navy Admirals in dresses, and LGBTQ/CRT/DEI troop indoctrination – by weakening America’s mineral and energy independence – by creating class warfare – and etc.
      The whole world sees how weak, politically and morally, America is right now. How America has less than a month’s worth of precision weapons. How no country besides England will join in any alliance with us. How our military response will quickly be reduced to nukes, which Biden and his cabinet lack the will to use.
      Our enemies will strike while the iron is hot.

      • Russia could very well move against the Ukraine very soon and while that is happening, be a good time for the CCP to move against Taiwan. Taiwan makes a huge percentage of chips in today’s products and without them, the effects will be enormous. Virtually everything we have today (other than a hammer or screwdriver…) is dependent on them.

  9. Notice how the typical trolls who show up in these comments are noticeably missing….. weird, huh? Maybe they couldn’t afford their fuel bill and actually had to go out and find a job!!

  10. A year ago under the Trump administration, America was energy independent. During this one year of the Biden regime, energy prices have soared, Biden’s begging Saudi Arabia to pump more oil, he shuts down the Keystone pipeline, shuts down ANWAR and is now using the strategic reserves to lessen the huge energy costs he caused!

    One easy remedy: stop voting democrats! It is said that Republicans may not always have the solutions to out problems but democrats are always the cause of the those problems.

    • Brandon has to answer to a lot of people he has to satisfy their needs first because they have ties to people dying in Parks after night. Then he’ll deal with the national oil crisis. It’s like he started a fire in several places at the same time, then that first fire starts to get a little big and out of control so he has to run over there and put it out and in the meantime all the other fires that he started or starting to get out of control so he’s got to run over there and on and on and on. Every action that he does starts another fire.

    • Saw a great interview with Trump just the other day, articulate and on-point– my goodness, what a mistake they made installing the DC Deep-State Zombie.

      • I don’t even know if the deep state will let Brandon in the club. Only in it typical marionette kind of way. There’s way smarter people in the deep state then Brandon can even fathom. We would always probably be surprised who’s a member of that club.

  11. Brandon and his handlers, along with his identity politics and growing dementia have proven them to be absolutely ambiguous, They literally couldn’t even run a car dealership never-mind a country.

  12. Part and parcel. To any energy sector employee or anyone who has paid any attention this isn’t news. Obama said in 2008 that under his plans energy prices would “necessarily skyrocket” this is a continuation of the Obama plan.

  13. Just as an aside to the sheer idiocy of this brain dead stunt…watch the footage of him giving this latest tyrannical decree. The man LITERALLY could not keep the drool from dripping out of his face while speaking.

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