The Joe Biden/Kamala Harris team said today they will sell 18 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Oil Reserve (once used only for war/famine/pestilence) to reduce the deficit by about $1.4 billion or less, depending on the current price of oil.
In another attack on the reserve, the White House said it will also exchange about 32 million barrels, saying that would lower gas and heating oil prices.
Both moves are political payoffs and palaver for the public.
Proof number one – passage was quick and was truly bipartisan, which meant most members of Congress from both parties will soon see gifts from lobbyists – usually disguised as campaign contributions, but too often attache case cash, promises of future no-show jobs, or in extreme cases, paintings by Hunter Biden.
Selling the reserve is not how you solve your budget mistakes. What’s next: naming rights for the Smithsonian, or the opportunity to sell, then lease, the Capitol Building from a real estate firm based in Shanghai. Could we have a Nike Room replacing the Lincoln Room? Or the Best Buy Wing instead of the West Wing?
The “exchange deal” is the more onerous of the two oily deals, neither of which will solve the real cause of high prices.
Under the exchange the oil companies get the oil now, sell it at high prices, then pay it back in future years.
That means today’s $80 oil won’t be sold by the U.S. for $80, but given away to the oil companies to sell at $80, and then returned to the reserve, when the price drops, even if as low as $20 a barrel. It’s called giveaway something valuable so the recipient can make money, don’t charge them, and let them pay it back when it is cheap.
The total 50 million barrels represents about four days of U.S. production, which this year is at its second highest rate of production in history.
That’s correct – second highest. Our oil production was slightly more in 2019, but we are running well ahead of last year under President Donald Trump.
Yes, are producing more oil than last year in this country and the price of gasoline is twice as much as last year.
If I believed in price-fixing, collusion and greed by Big Oil, such gouging at the gas pump is easily explained.
If I believed that our President in bliss would bless exorbitant oil prices so his party could promote green energy by making auto travel and home heating too expensive for most, I would call it conspiracy for the sake of climate virtue signalling.
Or, finally, someone in the over-the-hill White House is just plain dumb!
You can fool nearly all the people... 