Earlier we told you about the Biden administration’s plan to combat high gas prices, which is to again tap the nation’s strategic reserve. Now more details are emerging. The Biden admin’s plan is apparently twofold. First, tap the reserve over the course of several months that just coincidentally lead up to the November midterm elections:
BREAKING: President Joe Biden is ordering the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months in a bid to control energy prices. https://t.co/v5j6jNB2ve
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 31, 2022
The second part of the Biden admin’s plan is to — you guessed it — blame oil companies if the prices don’t come down enough:
White House keeping up pressure on oil companies as it announces a big release from strategic reserve.
“These companies need to be stepping up, given the moment that we’re in,” a senior administration official tells media just now.
“There is nothing standing in their way.”
— Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) March 31, 2022
"We believe the industry needs to step up," one WH official says of domestic oil companies
Biden has had discussions with leaders in oil industry https://t.co/gPXDwrc32Y
— Saleha Mohsin (@SalehaMohsin) March 31, 2022
Wait, the Biden White House and many other Democrats have expressed goals of putting Big Oil out of business and doing away with their products entirely in favor of “clean” alternatives, but now those companies aren’t pumping enough of that product as the Dems are facing a possible midterm disaster? This is quintessential Biden admin:
The President is also calling on Congress to “make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing.” For months, the Biden administration has publicly pushed back on the idea that regulations are holding oil producers back from more domestic production, pointing to millions of acres worth of land with approved permits for oil and gas production.
“Companies that are producing from their leased acres and existing wells will not face higher fees,” a fact sheet released by the White House reads, “but companies that continue to sit on non-producing acres will have to choose whether to start producing or pay a fee for each idled well and unused acre.”
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In other words, when the strategic reserve releases don’t have much impact on gas prices (or at least not enough to positively affect Biden and the Dems approval numbers heading into the midterms), they’ll blame the very companies they’ve said they’d like to put out of business for not doing enough to help. The Biden administration is so predictable.
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