EXPLAINER: What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
ABC News
President Joe Biden is again dipping into the nation’s petroleum stockpile to try to corral rising energy prices
DALLAS -- President Joe Biden is again dipping into the nation's petroleum stockpile to try to corral rising energy prices.
The White House announced Thursday that Biden ordered the daily release of 1 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve for the next six months. Biden will also ask Congress to penalize oil and gas companies that lease public land but aren’t producing energy.
The administration hopes that tapping the petroleum reserve will buy time and tamp down gasoline prices long enough until domestic producers can boost output.
Global oil prices were rising even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. When Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports in early March, he acknowledged it would come at a cost to American consumers.
