(WatchDogReport.org) – Gas prices have soared over the last several months, and they’re the highest they’ve been in years. One Democrat is now asking President Joe Biden to take action to try to lower the prices.
On Sunday, November 14, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) held a press conference. He said the American people “need immediate relief at the gas pump” and asked the president to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to introduce more supply to the market and lower prices.
“We need immediate relief at the gas pump and the place to look is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” @SenSchumer said during a press conference in New York on Sunday.https://t.co/R6VuHfvpkQ
— 13WHAM (@13WHAM) November 16, 2021
The Petroleum Reserve can hold up to 700 million barrels of crude oil and currently holds about 600 million barrels. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently said the president is considering tapping into a possibility. However, economists say tapping into the reserves is just a temporary solution to the problem and doesn’t address the true root cause. Plus, it could drain the reserves we do have and should we need them in the future, cause another crisis.
The real issue is that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is refusing to increase supply to meet demand. During the first year of the pandemic, the need for gas dropped dramatically. That caused prices to plummet. When demand increased, OPEC kept the supply low to drive the prices up. America isn’t part of OPEC, so it has no control over the matter. Biden has asked the group to increase supply to ease peoples’ financial strain, but it rejected his suggestion.
There’s a hope that OPEC will stop squeezing consumers around the world, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen in the immediate future. So, Biden will need to figure something else out.
Copyright 2021, WatchDogReport.org
