Biden Claims Draining Strategic Petroleum Reserve ‘Not Politically Motivated’
As he continues to drain the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), President Joe Biden is now trying to defend his actions — claiming that they are “not politically motivated at all.”
With skyrocketing gas prices being a major concern for Americans — leading to low approval numbers for the president and his party — Biden has released oil from the SPR on several occasions since taking office. While he claims that the draining of the SPR is being done simply to help Americans pay less at the pump, critics have argued that Biden is actually just trying to boost Democrats’ approval going into the November midterm elections.
On Wednesday, reporters at the White House questioned the president about his decision to release an additional 15 million from the reserves to keep prices low just weeks before the elections — asking him if his decision was political.
Biden denied the assertions, stating: “Not it’s not. Look, it makes sense, I’ve been doing this for how long now? It’s not politically motivated at all.”
The president went on to scoff at Republicans for calling him out over releasing more oil, as he has authorized the release of over 200 million barrels from the SPR since taking office. Republicans have also demanded that the president take more action to open up and incentivize domestic oil production.
“Where have they been the last four months?” Biden said when asked to respond to Republicans. “That’s my response.”
“The problem is these guys are asleep,” he added. “I don’t know where they’ve been.”
Biden then falsely claimed that he has done nothing to slow or stop U.S. oil production.
“Let’s debunk some myths: My administration has not stopped or slowed U.S. oil production,” he argued.
The president’s claim is blatantly false. In his first two years, Biden leased fewer acres for oil and gas than any other administration at the same point since the end of WWII, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. The president also issued an executive order halting oil and gas leases, and suspended oil production leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — reversing actions taken by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. Biden also famously canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have been responsible for transporting 830,000 barrels of crude oil to the U.S. from Canada.
