The president announced Tuesday that he would tap into 50 million barrels of emergency oil reserves. Will motorists notice during their Thanksgiving travels?
President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered the release of oil from emergency reserves in an effort to quell rising gas prices ahead of the holiday season. However, experts say Americans may not notice much of a difference at the pumps when they’re on the road for Thanksgiving celebrations. « It’s unlikely to have an immediate impact by Thanksgiving, » Devin Gladden, a spokesperson for the American Automobile Association (AAA), told Newsweek. « Although we will see some incremental decreases, we’re not expecting this to have a long-term impact. But it certainly will have an impact. » China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom have also all committed to opening up their oil reserves in an effort to help fight global oil prices. Gladden said how the market will be affected will depend, in part, on how much and when those countries join the effort. « It’s not a sustained increase in production, and so the impact will likely be short-lived, » Gladden explained. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at the fuel price-tracking site GasBuddy, told Newsweek it will be hard to predict exactly when prices will decrease. « I will say the price of oil has been declining ahead of this release, » De Haan said. It had been widely expected that the President would make this release, so oil prices in the last week have seen about an $8 loss a barrel, maybe about $7.
