Biden unveiled plans in late March to begin using SPR crude oil | Courtesy of Shutterstock
Biden unveiled plans in late March to begin using SPR crude oil | Courtesy of Shutterstock
U.S. State Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) worries President Joe Biden may only be making the country’s gas pump crisis worse based on his desperate actions.
"Wake up America,” Higgins recently posted on Twitter. “1 million barrels per day is being released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Biden is draining the SPR, which last month fell to the lowest since 1986."
With a focus on bringing rising gas pump prices down across the country, Biden unveiled plans in late March to begin using SPR crude oil. In a YouTube video, on March 31 the president announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil over a six-month window. As of April 1, the SPR held 564.58 million barrels of oil in stock and as of July 15, the SPR inventory stood at 480.1 million barrels of oil, a decrease of 84.48 million barrels since Biden's initial release.
According to CNBC, the SPR was created by Congress in the early 1970s with a goal of maintaining a reserve to address severe disruptions in supply following the Arab oil embargo. In a recent press release, the Functional Government Initiative argues that there has been no major disruption in the oil supply that would have warranted such a withdrawal.
At the time of his actions, Biden vowed that gas prices would start to fall after a slight delay, but recent data shows over the last four months as the country’s emergency oil reserves have fallen by nearly 85 million barrels the price of gas has increased by over 6% and the Gas Misery Index remains high across the state of Wisconsin.
All told, AAA officials report even as gas prices have wildly fluctuated, as of July 19 data shows a 6.6% price increase since the president’s SPR release on March 31. At that time, gas stood at $4.22 per gallon, 28 cents cheaper than the national average as of $4.50 per gallon.
The latest Gasoline Misery Index, which tracks how much more (or less) the average American consumer will have to spend on gasoline on an annualized basis, reports that the average Wisconsin resident is spending around $727 more on gas this year when compared to the same time a year ago.
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