Biden Administration calls on oil companies to produce more oil, asks for lower gas prices prior to the midterms

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - According to AAA, the average price of gas in the US is $3.85, more than 50 cents higher than a year ago.

The Biden Administration says Russia is to blame for the hike because of its invasion of Ukraine. As a result, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday the US will sell 15 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says this completes the sale of 180 million barrels per day over a six-month period which President Biden promised he would do. The White House says the Administration will buy back the crude oil for the SPR when prices are at or below $67-$72 per barrel.

“We want to encourage domestic production. And in order to do that, you have to give (companies) the certainty that what they produce will be bought,” said Granholm.

Also, the president is calling on energy refining companies to drop gas prices as the markets stabilize. The White House says companies have doubled their profit margins instead of passing lower costs onto consumers.

“Let me repeat gas prices come down and they continue to come down again. They’re now down more than 27 cents a gallon in Wisconsin this past week, 27 cents in Oregon, 16 cents in Ohio, 25 cents in Nevada, 17 cents in in in Indiana, just the last 10 days. And that’s progress. But they’re not falling fast enough,” said President Biden.

The Energy Information Administration projects, because of these policies, we will see prices stabilize about $3.80 per gallon by the end of the year.

Gray White House Correspondent Jon Decker asked the president if the move was politically motivated given, we are less than three weeks from the midterms.

President Biden said no.

“It’s motivated to make sure that I continue to push on what I’ve been pushing on, and that is making sure there’s enough oil that’s being pumped by the companies so that we have the ability to be able to produce enough gas that we need here at home, Oil we need here at home. And at the same time, keep moving in the direction of providing for alternative energy,” Biden responded.

As the Biden Administration celebrates today’s announcement, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel says, “voters are really ticked off about the economy.” She says the problems are “caused by the Democrats because they cut America’s energy independence and then overstimulated the economy with government spending.