Biden taps oil reserve again

President Joe Biden is trying to take the edge off of painful gas prices by further dipping into the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve.

On Thursday, he ordered the release of 1 million barrels per day for the next six months. The release is a way to boost supplies and lower prices at the pump until oil companies ramp up production.

The administration estimates that domestic production will grow by 1 million barrels daily this year.

Biden already ordered 50 million barrels of oil be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in November.

What else will the government do? Biden said he also wants to start issuing fines to oil and gas companies that have leases to drill on public lands but are not producing. Critics say the president’s policies have made companies reluctant to drill in some areas.

Biden also announced that he would invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of his broader push to shift Americans away from fossil fuels.

This story originally appeared in WORLD. © 2022, reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.