President Joe Biden framed his Thursday announcement of a historic release of America’s oil reserves as a “wartime bridge” to address rising oil prices until domestic companies can ramp up production later this fall.
Biden’s comments marked the first time the White House has acknowledged that U.S. companies cannot reduce domestic gas prices in the immediate future. Following his implementation of a ban on Russian energy imports, Biden and other senior administration officials launched a pressure campaign on domestic oil companies to surge production and pass on savings to consumers rather than sit on record profits.
BIDEN RELEASING ONE-THIRD OF US OIL RESERVES TO COMBAT INFLATION, RISING GAS PRICES
“The action I’m calling for will make a real difference over time, but the truth is, it takes months, not days for companies to increase production,” Biden said. “This is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year, and it is by far the largest release of our national reserve in our history [and] will provide historic amount of supply for historic amount of time, a six-month bridge to the fall.”
Thursday’s announcement includes the phased release of 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and calling on Congress to pass legislation penalizing oil and gas companies sitting on dormant oil wells or untapped federal permits. The Department of Energy will use the revenue from the STR release to refill the national stockpile over time.
Furthermore, Biden is invoking the Defense Production Act to boost domestic procurement of critical minerals used in electric car batteries and other high-tech commercial goods. Biden stated it is critical to continue investing in green energy technologies despite the immediate need to surge oil production.
The president could not put a specific figure on how much the action will reduce prices at the gas pump or when people would begin to see prices drop.
“It could come down,” he told reporters, “from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon. That’s unknown.”
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You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.
