The Patriot Post® · An Oil Slick of Biden's Spilling
Back in 2022, when Bidenflation was pushing gas prices to record highs, Joe Biden responded by opening up the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in a failed attempt to alleviate prices at the pump.
The SPR was intended for emergency purposes, not as a means for the federal government to combat high oil prices — or Biden’s falling poll numbers. But it was a midterm election year, and Biden needed to appear that he was helping Americans who were shoveling out more of their hard-earned dollars on not just gas but everything.
At the time, Biden blamed the spike in oil prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deflecting from his own aggressive anti-fossil fuel policies, like his cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. To make matters worse, Biden drained the SPR not only for American interests but also to send 180 million barrels to China, thereby reducing our strategic reserves from 600 million barrels to 363 million, which is where they sit today.
Naturally, Biden promised to refill the SPR when the price of oil came back down.
Well, this week, he canceled a slated purchase of some three million barrels for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and blamed it on a recent rise in the price of oil. Biden’s Department of Energy explained that the decision was “keeping the taxpayer’s interest at the forefront.”
Funny — when has the spend-happy Biden administration ever allowed concerns over costs to constrain its decision not to spend taxpayer money? Is this a first?
With the current price of oil rising to $85 a barrel, that’s $6 a barrel more than what the administration is supposedly willing to pay. The trouble is that the price is high because of Biden’s anti-fossil fuel agenda. Therefore, the likelihood that the Biden administration will ever be able to refill the SPR is slim to none.
“It’s pure insanity to watch the Biden Administration cut American oil production and then claim they can’t refill our critical reserve because of the price,” observed Daniel Turner, executive director of the energy group Power the Future. “Joe Biden drained the SPR for political reasons, cut our domestic production for his climate agenda, and now he’s leaving our critical reserve more vulnerable because he’s incompetent. As a result, Americans are paying more at the pump, more at the grocery store, and our SPR is less full during a time of rising turmoil in the Middle East.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by Fox News’s Peter Doocy: “So, you guys started draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try and help with ‘the Putin Price Hike’ a few years ago. Said you were going to refill it. But now it doesn’t seem like that’s happening. Why?”
KJP’s response was a classic dodge: “Well, from — I believe the Department of Energy is — is responsible for — for that particular component — is refilling — refilling that, so I would refer to the Department of Energy. I know there are certain components to that and how they were going to move forward and refilling — refilling it. Uh — I — they would have had more specifics on that for you.”
Got that?
The trouble with all this is that the SPR is for emergencies. It’s tough to respond to an unexpected emergency event if the government has neglected to ensure that it has maintained all the assets it needs to act. Biden’s political agenda put the U.S. in this mess, but he seems entirely unconcerned about doing anything to address it, never mind honoring his own promises to the American people.