Gas Pumps (TFP File Photo) The price of gas may go down this summer as President Joe Biden prepares to trade U.S. energy security for votes. Bi
The price of gas may go down this summer as President Joe Biden prepares to trade U.S. energy security for votes.
Biden is set to once again deplete the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, just ahead of the 2024 election in an effort to cut pump prices.
“We will do everything we can to make sure that the market is supplied well enough to ensure as low [a] price as possible for American consumers,” Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security Amos Hochstein said during an interview with the Financial Times.
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“I think that we have enough in the SPR if it’s necessary.”
Hochstein added that gas prices are “still too high” for many U.S. motorists and he advocates action to “cut them down a little bit further.”
The news comes after Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said last month that the administration is “laser-focused on lowering prices at the pump for American families, especially as drivers hit the road for summer driving season.”
“By strategically releasing this reserve in between Memorial Day and July 4, we are ensuring sufficient supply flows to the tristate and Northeast at a time hardworking Americans need it the most,” Granholm said in a statement.
Former President Gerald Ford established the SPR in 1975 as OPEC embargoed exports to the U.S. and unleashed domestic energy crises. The intent was to insulate Americans from unexpected shocks in the global oil market.
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Biden, however, has tapped the reserves as a political tool to fight upward-spiraling gas prices caused by his own green energy and inflationary policies.
According to the Energy Department, when former President Donald Trump took office, the SPR held about 695 million barrels of oil.
As of this month, the total is around 371 million – but under Biden, it has been as low as 346 million barrels, a level reached 11 months ago.
That was the lowest level since 1983. And much of that was sold to foreigners, such as China, India, and Europe.
Meanwhile, although prices have come down from record-high spikes earlier in Biden’s tenure, today’s average price per gallon for gas is about $3.45, or about $1.06 per gallon more than when Trump left office.
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