President Joe Biden announced his intent to release millions of barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and his long-term goals to achieve American energy independence through alternative energy, as U.S. consumers continue to experience skyrocketing prices at the pump.
In remarks Thursday afternoon, Biden continued to blame the Russian invasion of Ukraine and “Putin’s Price Hike” for soaring gas prices and announced that he was going to release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next 6 months, a total of more than 180 million barrels. He also reaffirmed his long-term plans aimed at achieving energy independence by reducing fossil fuel consumption.
“Today, I’m laying out a two-part plan, not only to ease the pain that families are feeling right now, but to end this era of dependence and uncertainty, and to lay a new foundation for true and lasting American energy independence,” Biden said. Biden blamed the ongoing energy crisis on two factors: rapid demand increases that came from COVID-19 restrictions being lifted — increases that outpaced an increase in supply — and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Now Putin’s Price Hike is hitting Americans at the pump,” Biden continued. “Which brings me to the first part of my plan: to immediately increase the supply of oil. Our prices are rising because of Putin’s actions. There isn’t enough supply. And, the bottom line is, if we want lower gas prices, we need to have more oil supply right now.” Biden then restated previous claims that U.S. oil companies are exploiting the crisis in Ukraine to rake in record profits, and are meanwhile “sitting on over 9,000 unused but approved permits for production on federal lands.” As part of his response plan, he called on Congress to impose fees on oil companies for their unused leases.
Biden then made the anticipated announcement that he was releasing 1 million barrels of oil per day from the SPR over the next 6 months. “This is a wartime bridge, to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year, and it is by far the largest release from the national reserve in our history,” Biden said, calling the release “historic” and promising to replenish the reserves once prices declined.
The second half of Biden’s plan involved “declaring real American energy independence in the long-term.”
“Ultimately, we and the whole world need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels altogether,” Biden said. “We need to choose long-term security over energy and climate vulnerability. We need to double down on our commitment to clean energy and tackling the climate crisis with our partners and allies around the world.”
As part of his plan, Biden announced that he was invoking the Defense Production Act to “secure domestic supply chains” for the critical minerals that go into electric car batteries and the storage of renewable energy. Biden went on to claim that the “next-generation of electric cars” would save the average driver about $80 a month because they would not have to pay for gas, and that homes powered by “solar or heat pumps” would save about $500 a month. He also claimed that energy costs would continue to decrease as more energy innovation was achieved. He continued, saying that gas mileage would increase by about 10 miles per gallon in gas-powered cars over the next 5 years because of new regulations requiring an average fuel economy of 49 miles per gallon. He also said that he would save families more by taking similar regulatory action on home appliances.
“Between ramping up production in the short-term and driving down demand in the long-term, we can free ourselves from dependence on imported oil from across the world,” Biden concluded. “Look, I know as prices are painful, I get it. My plan is going to help ease that pain today, and safeguard against [it] tomorrow. I’m open to ideas strengthening the plan, but I will not be put off, and put it on hold.”