On March 31, 2022, the Biden administration tapped into the United States’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
This is a move that is generally made during a time of emergency, namely if the US were to get in a war with a peer or near-peer competitor.
However, the US is in a de facto proxy war with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The US is sending military aid, imposing stiff sanctions, and providing intel to Ukraine in its efforts to turn Ukraine into Russia’s Afghanistan. In light of the US’s move to confront Russia indirectly, it still doesn’t justify the US tapping into its strategic reserves.
Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert recognized this and was one of the sharpest critics of the Biden administration’s move to release 1 million units of oil per day from reserves.
Boebert tweeted on April 1, 2022:
”The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is supposed to be used STRATEGICALLY, not simply because the occupant of the White House refuses to produce energy in America.”
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is supposed to be used STRATEGICALLY, not simply because the occupant of the White House refuses to produce energy in America.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) April 1, 2022
Regardless of where one stands with regards to how the US should be involved in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict (this author thinks we should completely stay out of it), there’s no reason for the US to be left dependent on foreign countries for its basic energy needs. Especially, when the US has so many resources and has a gigantic regulatory state that inhibits natural resource companies’ ability to bring more energy on-line across America.
Instead of saber-rattling abroad, perhaps our political class should focus on getting our energy house in order. Most of our problems these days are internal in nature, so it would behoove lawmakers to shift their gaze stateside not abroad.
