Biden oil move aims to cut gas prices ‘fairly significantly’:
On Thursday, President Joe Biden ordered that 1 million barrels of oil be released from the country’s strategic petroleum reserve each day for the next six months. This is in an attempt to control energy prices which have risen rapidly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted sanctions from the US on its allies. Biden has also ordered Congress to penalize oil and gas companies that lease public lands without producing. He has announced his intention to invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of minerals needed for batteries in electric vehicles so as to pull the US further away from its reliance on fossil fuels. These actions show the vulnerability oil poses to the US as higher gas prices continue to hurt Biden’s approval rating. Tapping into the US’s stockpile could create the pressure necessary to reduce prices while oil companies increase their production, though the President has already ordered this twice without creating a significant shift in the market. The oil market has reacted well to this latest release, leading crude oil prices to drop by 6% per barrel though it is still up by more than $60 from last year.