Donald Trump told Fox News last week that he will refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which have been drained to dangerously low levels by the Biden Administration.
Trump said the Biden has been gambling with American security in order to try to force gasoline prices lower.
“[Biden is] using the strategic reserves, which is meant for military, which is meant for war, and very important things, he’s using it to try and keep gasoline prices down,” Trump said, referring to election-year politics. “We can’t allow that to happen. We don’t need energy from any other country. We have to fill up the strategic reserves again. It is the lowest number it has ever been.” he added.
When Biden took office, the nation had 638 million barrels of oil in reserve that were to be kept in storage in case of a national emergency. Biden drew the volume down to 346 million barrels for two years, and particularly leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, in an effort to drive down gas prices for Americans and increase the chances that Democrats would win their elections. He then started to rebuild it to its current level of 375 million barrels.
The reserves are still at the lowest level since they were. first filled after being established in the early 1980s and the levels are barely higher than last year, when Biden promised he would refill it. Although his administration has announced that it would purchase oil for the reserve, it has canceled most of those purchases.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a federal government complex of four sites, each with with deep underground storage caverns created in salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. It was established to prevent another oil crisis, such as the one that occurred in the 1970s.
Rick Whitbeck, Alaska director for Power the Future, said, “It’s good to see someone running for president understand that energy security is national security. Our nation’s strategic petroleum reserves were never designed to be used as a political football. The Biden administration has done exactly that, manipulating them for political gain and votes, instead of for their designated reasons.”
Energy is on the ballot in November, Whitbeck said: “Let’s hope America makes the right choice, and we can return to energy dominance once again as a country.”
