On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki held her first press briefing since being diagnosed with COVID-19.
During the briefing, Psaki was asked by Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich about increased gasoline princes, and if the Biden administration will be tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) “to bring down costs.”
“Democrats are calling for the president to release barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down costs — and that would be somewhat of an immediate action to mitigate these high gas prices as opposed to waiting for the BIF money to be implemented to address the long-term supply chain issues or the Build Back Better to be passed. Why has the president not yet done that? Does he plan to do that soon?” Heinrich asked.
After briefly stating that she didn’t “have anything to preview,” Psaki pivoted, saying that the administration has been “asking the FTC” to “look into price gouging,” as well as “pushing OPEC to release more supply.”
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the SPR is already being tapped, but the oil is allegedly being shipped to other countries:
About 1.6 million barrels of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a monthly record — was shipped out in October, according to data from market intelligence firm Kpler. Three cargoes were loaded onto a supertanker in the U.S. Gulf Coast and are headed to Asia.
“If the Biden Administration decides to tap U.S. emergency crude reserves to push down domestic energy prices, it may not help all that much. The supplies may just be exported away like last month,” Bloomberg reported.
TRANSCRIPT VIA THE WHITE HOUSE:
FOX NEWS WH CORRESPONDENT JACQUI HEINRICH: Democrats are calling for the president to release barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down costs — and that would be somewhat of an immediate action to mitigate these high gas prices as opposed to waiting for the BIF money to be implemented to address the long-term supply chain issues or the Build Back Better to be passed. Why has the president not yet done that? Does he plan to do that soon?
PRESS SECRETARY JEN PSAKI: I don’t have anything to preview for you. I can just reiterate what I conveyed a little bit earlier — is that certainly the cost of gas is on the minds of the, on the mind of the president, as it is on the mind of many Americans across the country.
And there are several steps we’ve taken, including pushing the FTC, or asking the FTC to look into price gouging — something we’ve seen and we have concerns has been an issue over the past few months as the availability and supply of oil has gone up and prices have not come down; pushing OPEC to release more supply to meet the demand. And certainly there are a range of other domestic options, but I just don’t have anything to preview at this point in time.