The Biden Administration announced Tuesday that it would release 42 million gallons of gasoline from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve. The release, the Department of Energy explained, is “strategically timed and structured to maximize its impact on gas prices.” This will, according to the DOE, help lower prices at the pump during the summer months when prices tend to go up along with demand.
The Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve was created in 2012 following Superstorm Sandy, which damaged two refineries and shut down 40 terminals in New York Harbor. Some New York gas stations went as long as 30 days without a supply of gasoline as a result of the supply disruption. The Obama administration established the gas reserve to prevent such a shock from happening again.
The 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which became law in March, included language requiring the DOE to sell off the inventory from the reserve and shut it down once it was drained.
David Blackmon, energy writer and analyst, told Just The News that it was a shortsighted move on the part of Congress. There are all kinds of potential disruptions on supply, he said, that could make having a stockpile a good idea. “Just three years ago, Colonial Pipeline suffered a cyber attack. That was down for two weeks, and you’ve got a gas shortage all over the region,” Blackmon said.
In 2022, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring ahead of the midterms, President Joe Biden tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to bring the politically inconvenient prices down.
Unlike the SPR, the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve was already slated to close, but the timing of the move suggests Biden still has a strong interest in managing gas prices ahead of an election.
“This is a move simply to try to keep gas prices in check. There’s no actual supply disruption issue or risk to national security. We are entering a high demand season for gasoline, and prices are trending higher. So, I think it’s just an attempt to check that price rise,” Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer and editor in chief of Shale Magazine, told Just the News.
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