The Sconi

The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) announced July 7 the filing of a transparency litigation against the Department of Energy on the grounds the agency repeatedly refused to release information about President Joe Biden’s recent decision to release huge amounts of emergency crude oil as gas prices continued to rise.

“With each release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we weaken our ability to respond to a legitimate supply crisis,” FGI spokesman, Peter McGinnis said in a statement. “The SPR was created to respond to real emergencies, a category that does not include falling poll numbers caused by a failed energy policy. Americans deserve to know if political motives are behind moves that put their security at risk.”

Across the country, including Wisconsin, gas prices continue to stand at record levels. On average, residents are now spending $925 more on gasoline when compared to this time last year, according to the Gas Online Misery Index. In November 2021, as gas prices continued to soar, the White House went public with its plans to tap into the SPR and withdraw 50 million barrels of emergency crude oil.

The SPR was created more than 50-years ago by Congress following the Arab oil embargo with the intent to maintain a reserve to address severe disruptions in supply, according to CNBC. As part of its opposition, FGI officials argue that there has been no major disruption in the oil supply that would have warranted such a withdrawal. However, the Colonial Pipeline hacking attack in May 2021, which disrupted fuel supplies to the East Coast, did not trigger a release from the SPR.

FGI claims that its document request was triggered by concerns that the administration's decision to draw so much oil was in response to the president’s falling approval numbers, due in part to rising gas prices, as opposed to any supply disruptions, the release stated. More recently, the White House has made additional releases from the SPR in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompting FGI officials to argue such releases have depleted the reserve to dangerous levels not seen in more than four decades.

Earlier this year, FGI launched a probe into the decision to release the first 50 million barrels from the SPR. Despite FGI's repeated efforts to work with the DOE as the investigation progressed, the agency has not complied with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and FGI insists it believes this lawsuit is the only way to force DOE into releasing records that could reveal "the true basis for this unprecedented drawdown of the SPR."

According to Reuters, the White House exported 5 million barrels of oil from the SRP in June to countries in Europe and Asia. Cargoes of SPR crude were sent to the Netherlands and to a refinery in India, while a third ship is headed to China and U.S. Customs data shows the fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66, shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy.

As part of the president’s effort to curb rising gas prices, in March the Biden administration announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's SRP over a 6-month period. Biden said there would be a slight delay in declining gas prices by days and weeks, but the prices would drop by an unknown range. He further claimed, "it could come down fairly significantly. It could come down [to] a better part of anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon, it’s unknown at this point.”