Biden’s pathetic oil release – Washington Examiner

President Joe Biden announced the release of a million barrels of gasoline from government reserves on Tuesday in an effort he said would “lower prices at the pump when folks need it the most.”

Not only is the amount being released so infinitesimally small that it won’t have any effect on gas prices, but the sell-off of the reserve was mandated by Congress this March and has nothing to do with trying to lower gas prices.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Congress created the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve, which stores a total of 1 million barrels of gasoline divided between New York and Maine. This is completely separate from and should not be confused with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve created by Congress in 1975 following the 1973 energy crisis, which has a maximum capacity of 714 million barrels but only currently has 367 million barrels in storage.

This March, Congress passed a spending bill mandating that Biden liquidate the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve entirely and end the program. That is why Biden is acting now. Congress made him do it. It has nothing to do with any strategic decision on his part to manage the nation’s oil supply.

Selling off all 1 million barrels of the Northeast Reserve in 100,000 barrel chunks between now and July 4 will have no impact on gas prices. Americans use 9 million barrels of gasoline a day on average. 

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It was wise of Congress to end the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve, and it was prudent of Biden to execute the law as passed. But it is pathetic that Biden is pretending this is some huge strategic decision on his part.

Now, if we could just get Biden to execute the nation’s immigration laws faithfully, we’d be in great shape.