President Biden has flip flopped on his decision to release more oil from the strategic petroleum reserve in only one day. The critical decision comes at an important time, when gas prices are rising across the country, an energy crisis grips Europe, and mid terms are around the corner. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden would not be releasing any more oil in the near future. This news came as a relief to many as Biden has already depleted the reserve this year in order to bring down record gas prices.
But on Wednesday, The White House released a statement revealing that Biden will continue to release oil reserves when he sees fit. The statement reads, “The President will continue to direct SPR releases as appropriate to protect American consumers and promote energy security, and he is directing the Secretary of Energy to explore any additional responsible actions to continue increasing domestic production in the immediate term.” Biden ordered the release of million of barrels from the reserve earlier in the year to combat rising gas prices and seems to be following the same procedure with midterms approaching. The strategic petroleum reserve currently sits at its lowest point since 1984 at 450 million barrels.
In July, Biden visited Saudi Arabia to plead them to increase oil production. But earlier this week OPEC voted to cut their production by 2 million barrels per day. The White House was reportedly enraged by OPEC’s decision as they see rising gas prices as a major threat to the democratic mid-term outlook. Jean-Pierre called the OPEC vote to cut production “short sighted while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.” It looks like the Biden Administration is once again blaming high prices and inflation on Putin and will paint OPEC’s decision as an alignment with Russia.