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Impact of Biden’s release of oil reserves

Crude oil storage tanks in central Colorado, USA

High inflation and rising gas prices have promp- for Energy Law and Policy, who stated “I don’t
ted the Biden administration to release 50 mil- think that this 50 million barrels release is the
lion barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum cure to $4, $5 gas prices.
Reserve. It is the largest intervention into energy It’s not enough and what you would need is a
markets in a decade. The initiative was coordina- sustained supply increase over a longer period of
ted jointly with China, Japan, India, South Korea, time.” However, the US president doesn’t seem to
and the United Kingdom. be discouraged by these reactions. In his ongoing
These countries are also releasing oil supplies to quest to lower oil costs, he also wrote to the chair
the market. Biden enacted this measure as part of the Federal Trade Commission Lisa Khan, en-
of his ongoing efforts to relieve the American couraging her to look into the allegations of anti-
consumers from staggering inflation (which hit a consumer behavior by oil companies. He wants
31-year high in October). the federal regulators to investigate the oil com-
During this difficult time, the US president has panies that may engage in illegal conduct by pro-
faced mounting political pressure to reduce fiting from the gas price hike.
costs. Oil price spikes are causing Americans si-
gnificant hardship
For this reason, the American government had to
step in. There were mixed reactions to this ini-
tiative. Some economists believe that the 50 mil-
lion barrels release will not relieve prices imme-
diately. Since refineries have already ordered oil
supplies for December, the effects of the oil rele-
ase may be felt in 2022. The action is perceived
as a form of price management. It has a short-
term impact, as suggested by Seth Blumsack, the
Oil tanker
director of the University’s Center

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