White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre was asked about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) during the Wednesday, April 3, White House Press Briefing. Particularly, she was asked when the mostly-drained oil reserve would be refilled by the Biden Administration. Declining to answer, she tried passing the buck to the Department of Energy.
As background, President Joe Biden (in)famously drew on the SPR when gas prices precipitously rose in 2022, draining it by about 40%. Then, though it could have been refilled during the summer of 2023, when oil prices fell somewhat, the Biden Administration delayed plans to buy millions of barrels of oil to partially refill it.
Now, the Department of Energy has again delayed refilling the critical reserve of petroleum, the lifeblood of the economy. In mid-March, the Office of Petroleum Reserves at the Department of Energy announced that it would pull back its recent solicitation for three million barrels of oil in August and September that would have been delivered to Bayou Choctaw, an SPR site in Louisiana.
Commenting on the move, a Department of Energy spokesperson said, “Keeping the taxpayer’s interest at the forefront, we will not award for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site in August and September, and will continue to solicit available capacity as market conditions allow.” That spokesperson added, “As always, we monitor market dynamics to remain nimble and innovative in our successful replenishment approach to protect this critical national security asset.”
Then, during the April 3 Press Briefing, Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked KJP about the SPR and when it would be refilled. He said, “Thank you. First, the — so, you guys started draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try and help with the Putin price hike a few years ago, said you were going to refill it, but now it doesn’t seem like that’s happening. Why?”
KJP, in response, stumbled through blaming the Department of Energy, passing the buck rather than giving a direct answer. She said, “Well, from — I believe the Department of Energy is — is responsible for — for that particular component — is refilling — refilling that. So, I would refer you to Department of Energy. I know there were certain components to that and how they were going to move forward in refilling — refilling it. I — they would have more specifics on that for you.”
Watch that back and forth here:
Commenting on the matter of the SPR to Fox News Digital, Daniel Turner, executive director and founder of a watchdog group called Power the Future, said, “It’s pure insanity to watch the Biden administration cut American oil production and then claim they can’t refill our critical reserve because of the price.”
He added, “Joe Biden drained the SPR for political reasons, cut our domestic production for his climate agenda, and now he’s leaving our critical reserve more vulnerable because he’s incompetent.” He then said, “As a result, Americans are paying more at the pump, more at the grocery store and our SPR is less full during a time of rising turmoil in the Middle East.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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