The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) is demanding answers about what may be fueling President Joe Biden’s decision to release exorbitant amounts of emergency crude oil, recently filing suit against the Department of Energy (DOE) and accusing the government agency of repeatedly refusing to reveal information related to the White House’s position.
"With each release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve [SPR], we weaken our ability to respond to a legitimate supply crisis," FGI spokesman Peter McGinnis said in a statement, quoted in a recent FGI press release. "The SPR was created to respond to real emergencies, a category that does not include falling poll numbers caused by a failed energy policy. Americans deserve to know if political motives are behind moves that put their security at risk."
All across the country, gas prices continue to soar toward record levels, with the Gasoline Misery Index pegging the amount the average Arizona motorist is now paying for gasoline annually to be $993 more than just a year ago. The index tracks how much more (or less) the average American consumer is paying for gasoline on an annualized basis.
In November of 2021, the White House went public with its plan to tap into the SPR and withdraw 50 million barrels of emergency crude oil, a CNBC.com report said. The SPR was created nearly 50 years ago by Congress following the Arab oil embargo, with the intent of maintaining a reserve to address severe disruptions in supply.
As part of its opposition to the White House’s actions, FGI officials argued that there has been no major disruption in the oil supply that would have warranted such a withdrawal, including the Colonial Pipeline hacking attack in May of 2021 that disrupted fuel supplies to the East Coast; the press release said. FGI officials noted that their document request was triggered by concerns that the administration's decision to draw so much oil was in response to the president’s falling approval numbers, which they add stem more from rising gas prices than they do any supply disruptions.
More recently, the White House has made additional releases from the SPR in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prompting FGI officials to argue that such releases have depleted the reserve to dangerous levels not seen in more than four decades; the release said.
Earlier this year, FGI launched a probe into the decision to release the first 50 million barrels from the SPR. Despite their concentrated effort to work with the DOE as the investigation progressed, FGI officials insist the agency has not complied with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FGI added that it believes its lawsuit is now the only way to force the DOE into releasing the records that could reveal to Americans "the true basis for this unprecedented drawdown of the SPR."
The White House reportedly exported 5 million barrels of oil from the SPR last month to countries in Europe and Asia, a recent Reuters report said. Cargoes of SPR crude were also sent to the Netherlands and to a Reliance refinery in India. Additionally, a third cargo is headed to China; and U.S. Customs data shows the fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66, shipped approximately 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy.
As part of his effort to curb still rising gas prices, Biden in March announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR over a 6-month period. The president noted there would be a slight delay in the decline of gas prices by days or weeks, but the prices would drop by an unknown range.
"It could come down fairly significantly,” he said. “It could come down [to] a better part of anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon. It’s unknown at this point.”