The president of the United States, Joe Biden, announced this Tuesday the release of one million barrels of gasoline in an attempt to reduce prices before the summer season and six months before the presidential elections, in which inflation is emerging as a key issue for voters.
As reported in a statement by White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, said release will come from a reserve located in the states of New Jersey and Maine, which was created after Hurricane “Sandy” left thousands of people without access to fuel.
As reported in a statement by White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, said release will come from a reserve located in the states of New Jersey and Maine, which was created after Hurricane “Sandy” left thousands of people without access to fuel.
The release of these barrels will occur between the Memorial Day holiday on May 27, which traditionally marks the beginning of summer in the United States, and July 4, when Independence Day is celebrated, detailed in another statement. the Department of Energy, on which the gasoline reserve depends.
Gasoline prices have reached an average of 3.60 per gallon, or .95 cents per liter, nationally, six cents higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
One of the few tools that a president has at his disposal to try to contain inflation is to resort to the national strategic reserves of gasoline and oil with the aim of increasing supply and, consequently, driving down prices.
Since he became president in 2021, Biden has resorted to this strategy on several occasions to prevent price increases.
One of the last releases of crude oil from strategic reserves was ordered by the president in October 2022, a month before the midterm legislative elections, in which the Democrats managed to maintain control of the Senate despite losing the majority in the House of Representatives.
Former President Donald Trump, the virtual candidate of the Republican Party who will face Biden in the November elections, shortly afterwards attacked the decision of the current administration.
In statements to the press in New York, where he faces trial, Trump criticized that Biden has to resort to strategic reserves to lower prices and assured that, during his mandate, the United States was “energy independent,” a slogan that has been used in the past to argue, falsely, that the country stopped importing energy and was capable of supplying itself with domestic production.
Biden, Trump stated, “does it to keep prices low, but they are higher than in history, and he is trying to stop this because high gasoline prices are not good for elections.”
According to a survey published in March by the Gallup consulting firm, inflation is one of the biggest concerns of Americans.
Specifically, that survey revealed that, for the third consecutive year, a record 41% of citizens mentioned inflation and the high cost of living as the main financial problem facing their family, slightly up from 35% in 2022 and the 32% in 2021.
These percentages have increased considerably in recent years. In 2008, the percentage of Americans citing inflation as their biggest concern was 18%, and in 2005, it was 10%, according to Gallup.