Democrat President Joe Biden’s Department of Energy (DOE) has falsely claimed responsibility for a reduction in gas prices.
Biden’s DOE announced that it took action to “help lower gas prices ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.”
However, the move was mandated by Congress earlier this year when lawmakers voted to sell off a million-barrel oil reserve.
The DOE deceitfully took credit for the move in its announcement, heaping praise on the “Biden-Harris Administration.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm argued that it “continues to take strategic action to lower prices for American consumers in every aspect of their lives—especially as summer driving season ramps up.”
“By releasing this reserve ahead of July 4th, we are ensuring sufficient supply flows to the Northeast at a time hardworking Americans need it the most,” Granholm added.
Buried in the announcement, the DOE admitted that the action was undertaken “in accordance with the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act.”
However, the Biden admin declined to explain further.
In reality, however, the sell-off was done under the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
The 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act is the bipartisan fiscal year 2024 government funding bill passed in March.
The bill mandated the Biden administration to entirely sell off the 1-million-barrel Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve (NGSR) and shut it down for good.
NGSR wasn’t large enough to stymie actual supply shortfalls or energy crises and had been costly to maintain.
In 2022, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that concluded the NGSR, which was created a decade ago during the Obama administration, is “not well suited to address the risks of supply disruptions in the region.”
The reserve also only contains enough fuel to meet a fraction of the nation’s daily demand of 9 million barrels.
In other words, the policy to sell off all remaining NGSR supplies was effectively set by Congress.
It was later agreed to by President Biden when he signed the funding bill earlier this year.
Additionally, after DOE first said it would solicit bids to purchase gasoline from the NGSR in late May, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement blasting Republicans.
Jean-Pierre’s statement also touted Biden’s alleged efforts to lower energy costs for American consumers, despite prices soaring under his administration.
“With Memorial Day weekend and the start of the summer driving season around the corner, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking action to lower gas prices with the sale of one million barrels of gasoline from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve,” Jean-Pierre said at the time.
“This builds on other actions by President Biden to lower gas and energy costs—including historic releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the largest-ever investment in clean energy.”
However, according to data compiled by AAA, the average price of gasoline has increased from $3.49 to $3.51 over the past week.
Prices have also increased in every state in the Northeast, the data shows.
Follow the Link for the Article... Biden Admin Takes Credit for Drop in Gas Prices Mandated by Congress
No comments:
Post a Comment