After draining the nation’s oil stockpile to the lowest level since March of 1984, with promises to quickly refill it, the Biden administration is delaying its original restocking plans citing market uncertainty.
Many analysts have voiced ongoing concern that emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as a means to try and drive down the price of gasoline at the pump was a sore misuse of the nation’s energy supply. While the President can typically release oil from the SPR for a host of causes, without much pushback, high gas prices resulting from bad energy policies usually aren’t on the list of acceptable reasons.
Furthermore, the recent releases from the SPR, timed to drive down gas prices right before the midterm elections, were a blatant political ploy intended to help Democrats at the ballot box at the expense of the country’s strategic preparedness.
Despite the fact that oil has hit the price target originally set by the Biden administration to begin refilling the preserve, the White House has moved the goalposts and will delay purchases until some other point down:
U.S. Energy Security Advisor Amos Hochstein said on Tuesday that the White House would look to refill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves when oil prices were “consistently” at $70 per barrel, Bloomberg said.
In mid-October, the White House released a fact sheet that outlined the administration’s intention to refill the SPR when oil prices were between $67 and $72 per barrel, following the President’s release of 180 million barrels from the SPR to help bring down the price of oil.
Now, however, it seems that the Administration is walking back that plan by clarifying that its repurchase program would begin only when crude oil prices were $70 or below “consistently”.
Hochstein did not say how long prices would need to stay at the level before repurchasing would begin.
With New England states set to enter winter and staring at likely heating oil shortages, the Biden administration has left the country in an extremely vulnerable position when it comes to energy security.
With the global market still in turmoil from the Russin invasion of Ukraine, and related conflicts, the United States is now groveling to Venezuela by lifting sanctions to begin pumping oil from another anti-American regime, a move being called “stupidity” by some analysts:
The Biden administration is taking some heat from critics after quietly paving the way for Chevron to expand its oil drilling operations in Venezuela.
The “stupidity” of Biden officials encouraging the oil giant to go in Venezuela “is completely mind-blowing,” Fox News contributor Liz Peek said on “Mornings with Maria” Monday.
According to a recent announcement made by the U.S. Treasury Department, Chevron has been issued an expanded license to import petroleum produced by its joint venture with the Venezuelan state oil-firm, PdVSA.
The approval comes after talks resumed between the Venezuelan government, led by socialist President Nicolás Maduro, and the opposition Unitary Platform.
“None of this makes any sense,” Peek told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo as Venezuela’s oil is considered heavier and dirtier compared to U.S. oil.
“The idea [that] we sent officials there to encourage them to take baby steps towards looking like a democracy so that we could basically go in there and get more oil,” explained Peek, calling the move “offensive”
The United States has now been put in a position fighting a proxy war with a dictator in Europe in which the only way to keep the country’s energy supply afloat is to enter an agreement with a dictator in South America. As noted above, the idea that Venezuela will, overnight, suddenly embrace some form of democratically-elected government so that we can pump some more oil is absurd. In truth, it’s Venezuela holding the high card since Biden has put America’s energy security in question. With Saudi Arabia taking a hard pass on helping Biden, there aren’t many options left on the table outside of increased domestic production, something the green energy zealots simply will not allow.
The Biden energy policy of killing off domestic oil is still wreaking havoc and hasn’t yet run its full course. What has changed, however, is at least an admission by some Biden administration officials that the country cannot live on solar panels and wind farms alone. Oil is still the lifeblood of the world economy and will remain so for decades to come.
