President Biden announced Thursday that his administration would release about 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in order to alleviate the economic strain of gas prices that have soared as a result of inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Oil will be released from the SPR at a rate of 1 million barrels per day for six months, a move the administration characterized as the largest ever in the reserve’s history.

“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 our national reserve in our history,” Biden said in his announcement. “It will provide a historic amount of supply for a historic amount of time — a six-month bridge to the fall.”  

In all, the effort by the administration is expected to result in a modest drop in gas prices — about 10 to 20 cents per gallon.

But what is an SPR?

Crude oil for an emergency

The SPR was constructed and developed to store up to 714 million barrels of crude oil for emergency use, according to the Energy Department.

It was created in the 1970s in response to the oil shocks.

At the time, Arab state members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cut production to protest the United States’ support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, according to Yale University.

When is it used, and who gets to release it?

The U.S. taps into its reserves for emergency situations such as when hurricanes hit the U.S. or when significant disruptions to the supply chain occur.

The stockpile of oil is controlled by the Department of Energy and directed by the president for releases. 

The Department of Energy has spent around $25.7 billion on the reserves, with $20.7 billion going toward crude oil and $5 billion going to the facilities. 

Prior to Biden’s announcement this week, the U.S. released 30 million barrels of oil in March from the reserves. 

Results

Gasoline prices are higher than we have ever seen. The government reported a year-over-year inflation rate of 7.9% for February, the highest since 1982. Americans need relief, and one thing stands in the way: President Biden’s unwillingness to reverse course on his administration’s commitment to put the American oil-and-gas industry out of business at the consumer’s expense.

In the year since the administration froze new drilling leases on 26% of federal land and more than a third of the nation’s resources in productivity, the U.S. has been falling further from energy independence, putting national security at risk. There is no good reason for America to become more reliant on energy imports. It constrains our policy choices, forces us to cede our national security to foreign players and enriches those who would do us harm. This administration is working with the Saudis, Venezuela and even Iran to come to the rescue. Why?

The 9,000 permits the White House keeps touting is misleading at best. Thousands of those sites can’t be developed as they are held up in litigation. Others require new permits and leases to make a full unit. Thousands more await approval. Conservatively, our data tells us the number of available permits ready for production today stands closer to 1,500, and many of those are already drilling. No leases have been issued for federal land since 2020.

Question

Is the war on big oil in the best interest of any American or are we just creating another problem as we deplete the oil that was accumulated for a real emergency?

Who will Biden blame if our country faces a emergency that requires the oil accumulated by prudent planning?