While energy experts spent months warning the Biden administration not to deplete America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for political means to reduce prices at the gas pump, the White House scoffed at concerns over how and when the reserve could be re-stocked.
The plan, or so they said in the Fall of 2022, was to simply wait it out a few months and then start buying oil back to refill the reserve. That part of the plan never happened and America is now being left in a dangerous and vulnerable position on the world stage.
Biden’s Secretary of Energy, the disgraced Jennifer Granholm, said recently it will be years before the reserve is re-stocked at the same levels and that global events continue to hamper efforts to reverse the gutting of America’s emergency oil reserve, CNN reports:
America’s emergency oil stockpiles have plunged to 40-year lows under President Joe Biden as US officials have sought to cushion consumers from high gas prices.
In an interview with CNN Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm vowed to refill the depleted Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a staggering task given that the rainy-day fund has shrunk by nearly 300 million barrels since Biden took office.
“The bottom line is we are going to replenish,” Granholm said on Tuesday.
Granholm said it’s “definitely possible” the Energy Department will pick up the pace of purchases for the SPR, but she conceded a complete refill is unlikely anytime soon.
Asked if the goal is to replenish the SPR during Biden’s current term, Granholm indicated that would be unlikely.
“The first term’s over in a year and a half. So, I’m not sure it’ll be fully replenished. But certainly, the plan is this term and the next term to be able to do that,” said Granholm, who previously told lawmakers it could take years to refill the SPR.
An Energy Department spokesperson clarified to CNN that the secretary did not mean the goal is to completely refill the reserve back to pre-Biden levels.
So, according to Granholm, the Lockdown Queen, America’s oil reserves even under a possible second Biden term will not reach pre-Biden levels. From today, that’s almost four and a half years until the end of a potential second Biden term and America will still be left at dangerously diminished oil reserve levels.
Meanwhile, this administration continues to make moves dialing up the war in Ukraine pointing to continued escalation between Russia and NATO-aligned countries. How is the United States expected to maintain military dominance with diminished oil reserves and, according to Biden’s recent gaffe, diminished artillery rounds?
As Fortune reported back in April, the Biden plan to re-stock the reserve fell apart rather quickly since it was predicated on the price of oil trending downward, which it did not:
But oil prices are still far higher than the administration’s target. On Friday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded at around $81 per barrel, and some analysts warn that prices will likely remain high for years in what’s known as a supercycle.
The potential consequences are serious. If the federal government refills the reserve at a higher price, it would mean far lower profits when the oil is resold later. Normally, those profits either go to the Treasury to be used in other government programs, or are tapped to replenish the SPR’s reserves and fund its upkeep. And if the government waits until prices fall to buy oil, it could put the U.S. at risk in the event of another oil price shock. Either way, there are no easy choices.
All of this was for political gain during the 2022 midterms in which Democrats were able to hold the Senate and retain some seats in the House at the expense of America’s military readiness.
High gas prices were a direct result of Biden’s anti-growth policies in the oil and gas market coupled with rampant inflation. Releasing 180 million barrels from the strategic reserve was intended to mask the failures of this administration.
Now, months out from these actions, the consequences are setting in that bad policies cannot be masked with more bad policies. A recent Bloomberg article suggested decades to re-stock at best, but that it’s likely the reserve will never be supplied to the point it was before Biden raided it.
To truly reverse course on Biden’s energy incompetence could take 30 years or more.
