Biden's energy mistakes

 Business Insider:

More releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve could handicap the Biden administration's ability to combat a future oil shock, according to analysts.

President Joe Biden, who was outspoken about using the SPR to lower gasoline prices, unloaded more than 200 millions barrels of oil from the reserve last year as Russia's war on Ukraine jolted energy markets. The SPR, the largest emergency oil stockpile in the world, is now at its lowest level since 1983.

It will be further tapped in April with a congressionally mandated sale of 26 million barrels, bringing the level to 346 million barrels — nearly half of what it was when Biden took office. While that's still more than last year's release, it may be less in reality.

The International Energy Agency requires members like the US to hold a minimum level for collective interventions. RBC Capital Markets has estimated the US obligation is about 315 million barrels. The minimum can include private-sector inventories, but those are seen as less reliable than the SPR.

And with the global energy market still uncertain a year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US could be vulnerable.

"To allow this drawdown to take place has put undue stress on American resources and limits our ability to respond to an oil market spike," according to Evercore ISI senior managing director James West.

Russia has signaled it is not done using energy as a weapon against the West. Earlier this month, oil prices surged after the Kremlin announced it would slash its crude production by 5% in response to sanctions.

Meanwhile, OPEC doesn't plan to increase oil supplies after cutting production last year. Saudi Arabia's energy minister said Tuesday that quotas set in October will remain in place through 2023 and indicated that the threshold to change that is high.
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Biden went from Trump's increased production to increased use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to manipulate the market.  It was a serious blunder that endangers the US economy and the US national security.  It is another reason to vote against Democrats.

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