Tue Nov 23, 2021 AT 10:47 AM EST
The White House announced Tuesday morning President Joe Biden plans to tap the strategic oil reserve as gas prices across the country continue to surge.
“Today, the President is announcing that the Department of Energy will make available releases of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices for Americans and address the mismatch between demand exiting the pandemic and supply,” the White House released in a statement.
As a reminder, President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline within hours of his inauguration in January. He also halted oil and gas leases on federal land.
Former President Donald Trump is slamming the move and reminding Americans the reserve is for emergencies and war, not a self-inflicted energy crisis.
“For decades our Country’s very important Strategic Oil Reserves were low or virtually empty in that no President wanted to pay the price of filling them up. I filled them up three years ago, right to the top, when oil prices were very low. Those reserves are meant to be used for serious emergencies, like war, and nothing else,” Trump released in a statement.
“Now I understand that Joe Biden will be announcing an ‘attack’ on the newly brimming Strategic Oil Reserves so that he could get the close to record-setting high oil prices artificially lowered. We were energy independent one year ago, now we are at the mercy of OPEC, gasoline is selling for $7 in parts of California, going up all over the Country, and they are taking oil from our Strategic Reserves. Is this any way to run a Country?” Read Full Story