President Biden admitted Tuesday that his move to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve \u201cwill not solve the problems of \u2026<\/b>
\nPresident Biden admitted Tuesday that his move to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve \u201cwill not solve the problems of high gas prices overnight\u201d \u2014 but insisted that his action \u201cwill make a difference.\u201d \u201cIt will take time,\u201d Biden said in remarks at the Executive Office Building in Washington, \u201cbut before long you should see the price of gas drop where you fill up your tank.\u201d The White House had announced the release from the reserve early Tuesday, before millions of Americans were expected to hit the road for the Thanksgiving holiday. Republicans slammed the move, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), calling it a \u201ccrass political ploy\u201d on Twitter. The markets were unimpressed by Biden\u2019s action as well. The price of crude oil spiked immediately after the 7 a.m. announcement by the White House and wound up closing nearly $2 per barrel higher than at the market open \u2014 reversing a weeks-long downturn in the commodity\u2019s price. \u201cThe problem is that everybody knows that this measure is temporary,\u201d Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president for oil markets at Rystad Energy, told the Associated Press. \u201cSo once it is stopped, then if demand continues to be above supply like it is right now, then you\u2019re back to square one.\u201d \u201cFor drivers wondering if gasoline prices will get lower\u2026 the reality is that this may not happen at all, or only with a significant lag time,\u201d Rystad oil market research chief Bjornar Tonhaugen told the Wall Street Journal. As of Tuesday, the nationwide average price for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $3.40, approximately $1.28 more that at this time last year, according to AAA. \u201cThe big part of the reason Americans are facing high gas prices is because oil-producing countries and large companies have not ramped up the supply of oil quickly enough to meet the demand,\u201d Biden insisted in his remarks. The president further charged that oil and gas companies are \u201cpocketing the difference\u201d between wholesale and retail gas prices, which he called \u201cunacceptable.\u201d Biden cited the alleged practice as the motivation for his request last week that the Federal Trade Commission look into whether energy companies were involved in \u201cillegal conduct\u201d to keep pump prices artificially high. Biden also denied that increased gas prices were due to environmental actions taken by his administration, most controversially the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline. \u201cMy effort to combat climate change is not raising the price of gas,\u201d he insisted. \u201cWhat it\u2019s doing is increasing the availability of jobs.\u201d Biden mused about tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during a CNN town hall last month, telling moderator Anderson Cooper that while he could \u201cgo in the Petroleum Reserve \u2026 and probably reduce the price of gas maybe 18 cents or so per gallon, it\u2019s still gonna be above three bucks.\u201d At the same event, the president described gas prices as relating \u201cto a foreign policy initiative that is about something that goes beyond the cost of gas,\u201d a reference to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, many of whose members are located in the Middle East. \u201cI don\u2019t see anything that\u2019s going to happen in the meantime that\u2019s going to significantly reduce gas prices,\u201d Biden said in the meantime, later emphasizing that \u201cI must tell you, I don\u2019t have a near-term answer.\u201d<\/p>\n