| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Land of the Free |
| Biden to sell 26 million barrels more from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve |
| 2023-02-15 |
| [FoxBusiness] The Biden administration on Monday announced another sale of oil from the Energy Department's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), with 26 million barrels set to be delivered to the market from April 1 to June 30, which will take the number of barrels in the reserve to a new low dating back to 1983. Unlike the largest-ever drawdown of the SPR that Biden announced in response to Russia's war in Ukraine, the latest release of 26 million barrels is in response to a requirement included in two laws enacted by Congress during the Obama administration under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 and the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The announcement comes ahead of a potential uptick in gas prices as the U.S. nears the summer driving season. "Biden is front-loading SPR barrels to avoid a summer gasoline price spike," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group and FOX Business Network contributor. "There are growing concerns among the Biden administration that gas prices are headed back to $4 a gallon and the president is fearful of the political heat he will have to take." When Biden took office in January 2021, the SPR contained 638 million barrels out of a congressionally authorized maximum capacity of 713 million barrels. After a series of releases totaling more than 260 million barrels, the SPR is at about 371.6 million barrels as of February 2023 — the lowest level since December 1983, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Selling another 26 million barrels from the SPR without adding new barrels of oil to offset the decline would take the SPR inventory to about 346 million barrels, which would be the lowest level since August 1983. Lawmakers from both parties have used SPR sales as a means to finance spending proposals — often through mandates that the sales occur years in the future as was the case for this sale. Presidents have also regularly tapped the SPR to provide short-term relief for gas prices. However, the sizable decline in the number of barrels contained during the SPR has made lawmakers balk at further reductions and the bipartisan omnibus spending bill that Congress passed in December canceled mandated sales of about 140 million barrels that were going to occur in fiscal years 2024 through 2027. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #2 Biden promised that he would refill the Reserve at a lower price than his selling price to the Chinese. He would have to stop throttling our production capacity to do that. As a shiester, Joe is all dump and no pump. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-02-15 14:00 |
| #1 See: January inflation report. |
| Posted by: Tom 2023-02-15 11:18 |