Biden’s Third Oil Release would be a “Band-aid Over His Self-inflicted Bullet Wound to Our Economy”

March 31, 2022

President Biden is getting desperate to fix his plummeting approval ratings. The American people have become fed up with rampant inflation and skyrocketing gas prices, and they need real answers. But instead of giving America’s energy workers a green light to unleash our energy might, the president is considering releasing more oil from the nation’s strategic reserve. 

The New York Times reports, “President Biden is considering a plan to release one million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for as long as 180 days… If fully enacted, the president’s plan would release 180 million barrels from the reserve, which is intended to help the United States weather spikes in demand or drops in supply. About 550 million barrels are in the reserve, which has a reported total capacity of about 714 million barrels.”

President Biden has twice already tried this playbook and it hasn’t worked. In November – well before Russia invaded Ukraine – the president announced his administration was releasing 50 million barrels from the reserve. At the beginning of March, he released another 30 million. Even the New York Times notes that the previous releases were ineffective, writing, “Mr. Biden’s release of 50 million barrels barely dented the market.” Oil from the reserve is meant to respond to disasters and unexpected shortages in the market – not self-inflicted high gas prices because of punishing regulation.

Power The Future founder and executive director Daniel Turner blasted the move the White House is considering. “This is the third time Joe Biden has tried to put this band-aid over his self-inflicted bullet wound to our economy,” said Turner. “High gas prices are a direct result of the Biden administration, and the only reason he cares about struggling families now is because he is worried about November. This latest drain on the reserve has nothing to do with helping America’s families and everything to do with helping the President’s abysmal approval rate. It’s simple: If Joe Biden really wanted to solve this problem, he would stop the political ploys and start unleashing American energy production.”

Biden’s band-aid “solutions” for high gas prices are only designed to help his poll numbers – they do very little for struggling American families.