As summer travel gears up, the Biden administration makes a public relations move to tackle rising gas prices, but will it make a meaningful dent in consumers' wallets?
On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced the release of 1 million barrels of gasoline from a reserve in the Northeast, established post-Superstorm Sandy, aiming to ease summer pump prices. Yet, this release pales in comparison to consumer demand, as Americans consume this amount of gasoline roughly every 2.7 hours.
Experts suggest its impact will likely be negligible, dubbing it more of a public relations move than a substantial policy shift.
The sale, hailing from storage sites in New Jersey and Maine, will occur in 100,000-barrel increments, fostering a competitive bidding process to ensure timely availability of gasoline for local retailers ahead of the July 4 holiday, the Energy Department explained.
This action stems from a congressional directive to sell off the decade-old Northeast reserve and shutter it, included in a spending deal to prevent a government shutdown. Timed strategically to coincide with the onset of the summer driving season, the sale is purportedly geared toward easing costs for American families.
Gasoline prices, averaging around $3.60 per gallon nationwide, have seen a slight uptick from last year. Utilizing gasoline reserves is one of the limited unilateral measures a president can take to mitigate inflation, a pressing concern in an election year.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm emphasized the administration's commitment to addressing pump prices, particularly as summer travel ramps up. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre framed the release as part of a broader strategy to lower energy costs, citing previous actions by President Biden.
This move follows Biden's significant drawdown of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2022 during the Ukraine crisis, which stabilized prices but drew criticism for politicizing emergency resources. Despite efforts to replenish the reserve, concerns linger about the efficacy and necessity of smaller reserves like the Northeast one.
Analysts suggest the impact of this release on national gasoline prices will be minimal, although the Northeast region might experience a slight dip. The reserve's limited capacity and need for frequent rotation due to gasoline's shelf life underscore its questionable utility compared to larger emergency oil reserves.
.png)