President Biden admitted Tuesday that his move to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “will not solve the problems of …
President Biden admitted Tuesday that his move to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “will not solve the problems of high gas prices overnight” — but insisted that his action “will make a difference.” “It will take time,” Biden said in remarks at the Executive Office Building in Washington, “but before long you should see the price of gas drop where you fill up your tank.” 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 “crass political ploy” on Twitter. The markets were unimpressed by Biden’s 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 — reversing a weeks-long downturn in the commodity’s price. “The problem is that everybody knows that this measure is temporary,” Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president for oil markets at Rystad Energy, told the Associated Press.
