Austin, Texas – Today, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. Department of Energy will release 50 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to address high energy prices. The following statement can be attributed to Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO):
“The Biden Administration knows that any impact of an SPR release is a temporary, inadequate quick fix for addressing higher energy prices. The only real long-term solution to address energy prices is to support the build out of additional pipeline infrastructure and work with U.S. operators to responsibly produce oil and natural gas here to meet our own energy needs, while exporting our environmentally conscious product to our allies abroad. Short-sighted policy decisions like an SPR release or asking OPEC to increase production will have serious and long-lasting implications for our national security, economy and the environment.”
Additional information:
- – Stephen Nalley, acting administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), testified at a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on November 16, 2021, that EIA’s analyses have found that a release of SPR oil reserves of “between 15 million barrels to 48 million barrels for a short period of time would bring down the price of crude oil about $2 per barrel and about five to 10 cents at the pump.”
- – In 2011, President Obama released a similar amount in response to rising gasoline prices. CNN Money reported in 2012: “Last June 8, a similar signal by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney that an SPR release was being considered sent oil futures down 9 percent and gas prices down 3 percent during the two weeks before the release was announced formally. Following the June 23rd SPR release announcement, pump prices dropped another 2 percent. But they stayed down for just over two weeks, the time it took for the Department of Energy to sell the oil for about $105 a barrel. After that, pump prices rebounded to above the pre-release level for most of the rest of the summer. Gas didn’t stay below the price before the SPR release until mid-September — when prices traditionally decline as summer driving winds down and use of summer fuel blends required by environmental regulations ends.”
