Politics

Biden Promises Lower Gas Prices After Emergency Reserve Release, Suggests ‘Up To 35 Cents’ Lower

[Screenshot/Rumble/White House]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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President Joe Biden promised Thursday that gas prices will decrease after tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to release tens of millions of oil barrels.

“Mr. President, how much, in monetary terms, do you estimate these announcements will reduce gas prices and when can Americans expect to see these changes?” Daily Caller Senior White House correspondent Shelby Talcott asked.

“That’s a really important question and there’s no firm answer to it, but prices already came down,” Biden began. “When it was announced ahead of time that Biden was going to release so many barrels of oil from this probe. They’ve already come down. My guess is, we’ll see it come down and continue to come down, but how far down I don’t think anyone can tell.”

The president claimed there will be a slight delay in dropping gas prices by days and weeks, but the prices will decrease by an unknown range.

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“But it will come down,” he continued. “And it could come down fairly significantly. It could come down [to] a better part of anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon, it’s unknown at this point.” (RELATED: Biden Calls For Raising Taxes On Oil Drillers Amid Energy Crisis) 

Biden also noted the administration is waiting to see how many barrels the European allies release from their supply, which he estimated could range from 30-50 million barrels. Lowering the price of gas will greatly depend on the number of oil barrels released by countries’ supplies, the president concluded.

The administration is planning to release an average of one million barrels per day for 180 consecutive days after facing increasing pressure to combat rising gas prices in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The average gas price has continued to exceed $4 per gallon, reaching around $4.32 per gallon March 14.

The president has ordered a total of 80 million from the SPR, first ordering 50 million in November to combat the rising inflation. He then joined 30 nations in the International Energy Agency (IEA) to release 30 million barrels of  U.S. oil on March 1 in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.