Biden administration officials are considering the use of the nation’s federal diesel reserve to help alleviate a growing energy shortage, according to a new report.
On Monday, a report from The Hill addressed the concern, citing a discussion with an official with knowledge of the matter.
“The team has prepared emergency declarations for President authorize release from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve if conditions deteriorate,” the official added. “We would call this a bridge to deal with short-term supply shortfalls.”
A White House official also revealed recent talk regarding usage of the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, according to a Monday CNN Business report. The reserve reportedly holds about one million barrels of diesel, which would only cover about one day of supply in the region.
“It’s small potatoes. It might buy a couple of weeks or even months, but it doesn’t solve the underlying issues,” Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN.
The news comes as the nation’s average price for diesel hit $5.56 per gallon on Sunday, remaining near last week’s record of $5.58 per gallon, according to AAA.
“While gasoline prices get much of the attention, diesel, which broadly is the fuel that moves the economy, has quietly surpassed its recent record high as distillate inventories, which include diesel and jet fuel, have plummeted to their lowest level in years,” GasBuddy chief petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said in a press release last week.
“Should distillate inventories fall another five million barrels, which is less than five percent, they will be at their lowest level in nearly 20 years, compounding the problem. There’s no quick solution as the economy has seen a robust turn around, made worse by Russia’s war on Ukraine as the West fences off Russia’s oil,” he added.
Prices for regular gas hit record highs last week as well, hitting $4 or more per gallon in every state, The Daily Wire previously reported.
In addition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts have pointed out some potential contributing factors to the ongoing surge in prices at the pump. The Biden administration has continued to be critical of American oil and natural gas production.
The Department of the Interior canceled a massive lease, totaling more than 1 million acres, in the Cook Inlet in Alaska, citing a “lack of industry interest in leasing in the area.”
The DOI also canceled two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico because of “conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.”
Biden also shut down the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, and has previously nominated anti-fossil fuel advocates like Saule Omarova and Sarah Bloom Raskin. They have called for the financial sector to divest from fossil fuels.
The nation’s Strategic Oil Reserve has already been tapped on multiple occasions to help reduce gas prices. “The reserve currently contains 420 million barrels of crude oil, even after the recent releases,” according to a Monday Fox Business report.