Biden's Use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Fund Democrat Political Campaigns
October 29, 2022 11:22pm
With Election Day just ten days from now, Joe Biden continues to use America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as his own personal campaign account.
When he took office on January 20, 2021, the SPR contained 638 million barrels of oil. Today, it has 390 million. Where did those 248 million barrels go? That 39% depletion went to fund Democrat political campaigns across the country.
To be clear, the money from selling oil from the SPR does not get deposited in Democrat campaign bank accounts. The reason the sale is funding Democrat political campaigns is because his sole reason for tapping the SPR is to aid Democrats in the midterm elections.
The American people properly blame Joe Biden for the high price of gasoline. The day Biden went into The White House, a barrel of oil cost $52, and the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. was $2.37 But on that same day, Biden issued an executive order that severely restricted the production of oil in the United States, and by June 2022, roughly 18 months into his term, the price of oil reached $120 a barrel and the average price of gas more than doubled to $4.96/gallon. Today, the price of a barrel of oil is $87, and the average price per gallon is $3.79.
Joe Biden is bragging about how that's $1.17 less than its peak. But he fails to mention that his anti-oil policies are still in effect; that prices are still $1.42 per gallon higher than when he took office (which is an increase of 60%); and that after the election when he stops tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, oil and gas prices are going to skyrocket again. Yeah, he leaves that part out. He leaves that part out because it would hurt the Democrats politically if you knew the truth. That's why he isn't telling you the truth. It's the same reason the so-called "news" media is also not telling you the truth. Because the so-called "news" media is nothing but the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party.
I know the President of the United States does not set gasoline prices. But his policies certainly influence it. And Biden's anti-fossil fuel policies caused prices to spike to a record high. Initially, Biden and the Democrats were fine with that because they thought it would force America to switch to wind and solar sooner than if prices remained low. But when polling indicated that those high gas prices would hurt Democrats on election day, Biden took steps to lower the price of oil, and with it, to lower the price at the pump too.
But did he do what would have made the most sense? No, of course he didn't. What would have made the most sense was to rescind his executive orders that restricted domestic oil production. Instead, he begged Venezuela to increase its oil production. And when Venezuela didn't, he begged Saudi Arabia to increase theirs. And the Saudis told him to pound sand. So he irresponsibly tapped our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
In 1973 and 1974, Arab nations refused to sell oil to the United States to punish us for supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. We had long lines at gas stations, high prices at the pumps, and rationing of both the amount of gasoline people could buy and the days they could buy it. It showed how vulnerable we were to the whims of foreign suppliers of oil. We responded to that crisis by establishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975. It's an emergency stockpile of petroleum maintained by the Department of Energy that consists of sixty underground salt caverns at four storage facilities; two in Texas and two in Louisiana. It has the capacity to store up to 714 million barrels.
The idea behind the SPR was to insulate the United States against oil supply disruptions from things such as embargoes and natural disasters. And with 714 million barrels in it, it also acts as a deterrent to anyone even imposing an embargo. And that's because we'd have the ability to release oil from the SPR to buffer the impact of an embargo; for a while anyway.
But because foreign suppliers of oil know that, they know that an embargo would have to be long-term to have any significant effect. Keep in mind that embargoes hurt the sellers too, not just the buyers. So there is an incentive on the side of the sellers for embargoes to be brief. But if our Strategic Petroleum Reserve can eliminate or at least limit damage in the short-term, and sellers don't want to embargo over the long term, that is a huge disincentive for the sellers to impose an embargo in the first place.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created to protect America from economic harm imposed upon us by foreigners. And it also allows the U.S. to release oil to address short-term, emergency supply disruptions to a refiner's normal operations. It was NOT created to allow the President of the United States to manipulate market prices by releasing oil from the SPR when it benefits his political party. But that is exactly what Joe Biden did.
In doing so, Biden has put the SPR's oil reserves at its lowest level since 1984. And I should point out that it wasn't this low in 1984 because we were using it; it was this low in 1984 because we were still filling it from its construction in 1977.
As would be expected, Democrats and their allies in the propaganda press keep reminding us that Joe Biden is not the first president to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And that's true. He isn't. But he is the first to tap it for the sole purpose of artificially and temporarily bringing down gasoline prices right before an election.
When Donald Trump tapped the SPR, it was because Hurricane Harvey reduced supplies.
When Barack Obama tapped the SPR, it was because Libya cut production during its civil war. And he tapped it again when Hurricane Isaac curtailed production.
When George W. Bush tapped the SPR, it was because hurricanes Lili, Iva, Katrina, Gustav, and Ike seriously reduced the availability of oil.
When Bill Clinton tapped the SPR, it was because a ship channel closure temporarily blocked incoming shipments of crude oil.
When George H. W. Bush tapped the SPR, it was when the Operation Desert Shield military buildup became the Operation Desert Storm war.
There have been other releases from the SPR. I won't list them all here. But NONE of them were for the purely political reason of artificially and temporarily lowering gasoline prices before an election as Joe Biden has done.
His release of our strategic petroleum reserves has been irresponsible. And it puts this country at great risk should a natural disaster or some geopolitical event like an act of war or terrorism cause real supply disruptions. What Joe Biden did here was the equivalent of emptying 39% of the firefighting water tank, so he could fill the pool for a party. And if there's a fire, there won't be enough water in the tank to extinguish it.
Further, because we're now in a vulnerable position, that increases the likelihood that an enemy actor will take deliberate steps to disrupt our oil supplies because they know we can't survive as long with such limited reserves.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve should have 108 days worth of imported oil in it. But we're down to just 59 days of imported oil replacement - all because Uncle Joe is a disgusting and dangerous partisan. Don't reward his behavior on Election Day.
MY DATA SOURCES FROM THE U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION:
Strategic Petroleum Reserve Stock Data - https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCSSTUS1&f=W
Historical Oil Prices - https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=RWTC&f=W
Historical Gasoline Prices - https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPM0_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W
Domestic Oil Production & Oil Imports - https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_sum_snd_d_nus_mbblpd_m_cur.htm