{"id":2213996,"date":"2024-04-05T16:56:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T20:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/remember-the-70s-oil-crisis-bidens-reluctance-to-restock-americas-oil-reserves-should-be-a-massive-red-flag\/"},"modified":"2024-04-05T16:57:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T20:57:43","slug":"remember-the-70s-oil-crisis-bidens-reluctance-to-restock-americas-oil-reserves-should-be-a-massive-red-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/remember-the-70s-oil-crisis-bidens-reluctance-to-restock-americas-oil-reserves-should-be-a-massive-red-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"Recall the 1970s Oil Crisis: Biden&#8217;s Hesitancy to Replenish U.S. Oil Reserves Raises Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fremember-the-70s-oil-crisis-bidens-reluctance-to-restock-americas-oil-reserves-should-be-a-massive-red-flag%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2213996&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The \u2064Biden administration&#8217;s decision not \u200bto refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve amidst rising oil prices raises concerns about the delicate balance \u200cbetween\u200b green initiatives and oil dependency. This move highlights the ongoing \u2063importance \u2064of oil to the economy and geopolitical stability. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created in response to the oil crisis of the 1970s, underscoring its historical significance.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p>Despite the best efforts of the Biden administration to move toward green alternatives, oil remains a vital commodity to not only the American economy but also global civilization in general. Easy access to the substance can be the deciding factor between a country\u2019s prosperity and its descent into chaos and poverty.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the Biden administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/biden-admin-nixes-plan-to-help-refill-strategic-petroleum-reserve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> that it had canceled plans to help refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, citing a rise in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysts-expect-crude-oil-prices-to-keep-rising-throughout-the-year\/\" title=\"Analysts expect crude oil prices to keep rising throughout the year\">crude oil prices<\/a> to $85 a barrel. The government had previously announced in March that it would solicit up to 3 million barrels for a facility in Louisiana as part of its efforts to resupply the SPR.<\/p>\n<p>The Energy Department claimed to be \u201ckeeping the taxpayer\u2019s interest at the forefront.\u201d The agency said, \u201cWe will not award the current solicitations for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and will solicit available capacity as market conditions allow,\u201d adding, \u201cWe will continue to monitor market dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an attempt to stimulate skyrocketing gas prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2022\/10\/19\/biden-to-announce-more-oil-reserve-sales-to-reduce-gas-prices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">initiated<\/a> a 180-million-barrel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2022\/10\/18\/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-new-actions-to-strengthen-u-s-energy-security-encourage-production-and-bring-down-costs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drawdown<\/a> of the SPR in 2022, decreasing the reserve to its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/11\/02\/biden-strategic-petroleum-reserve-oil-levels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lowest level in decades<\/a>. Since that drawdown, Biden has slowly purchased more oil, around 32 million barrels, but the reserve is still well below where it was before Biden took office.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_719633\" style=\"width: 779px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-719633\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon Bell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The SPR currently stands at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/petroleum\/supply\/weekly\/pdf\/table1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">363.6 million barrels<\/a> according to recent data, down from around <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/biden-inflation-business-opec-climate-and-environment-cd15107ef2e0bb49db9165eb190b450c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">600 million<\/a> barrels in late 2021 and nearly half the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/ceser\/spr-quick-facts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">authorized storage capacity<\/a> of 714 million barrels.<\/p>\n<p>Though the administration\u2019s decision on the SPR was received passively by the mainstream media, it\u2019s actually a pretty massive deal for those who remember why it was created in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>The SPR, \u201cthe world\u2019s largest supply of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-energy-secretary-says-tapping-emergency-oil-reserves-a-possible-tool-to-tame-fuel-prices\/\" title=\"US Energy Secretary Says Tapping Emergency Oil Reserves a Possible \u2018Tool\u2019 to Tame Fuel Prices\">emergency crude oil<\/a>,\u201d was established in 1975 specifically to \u201creduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products\u201d in the wake of the oil crisis of the mid-1970s, the Energy Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/ceser\/strategic-petroleum-reserve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In retaliation for supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, the Arab-dominated OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Arab-oil-embargo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">imposed<\/a> an embargo on oil exports to the United States. Within a year, the price for a barrel of oil in the U.S. quadrupled, and the nation suffered its first oil shortage since World War II.<\/p>\n<p>In response, the federal government lowered the national speed limit to 55 mph in order to reduce oil consumption, several states <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/history\/2021\/05\/13\/gas-shortages-1970s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">imposed<\/a> rationing schemes, and gas lines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/pictureshow\/2012\/11\/10\/164792293\/gas-lines-evoke-memories-oil-crises-in-the-1970s#:~:text=During%20two%20separate%20oil%20crises,they%20tried%20to%20fill%20up.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">became<\/a> common. One common scheme to control gas consumption was to only allow cars with license plates that ended in an odd number to refuel on an odd day of the month, and vice versa for cars with license plates ending in an even number.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_719631\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-719631\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frederic Lewis\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The U.S. economy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csis.org\/analysis\/arab-oil-embargo-40-years-later\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shrank<\/a> by an estimated 2.5% because of the crisis. Though the embargo was ended after negotiations between the U.S. and OPEC in March 1974, the surge in prices and unemployment contributed to the stagflation the plagued the U.S. economy for the rest of the decade.<\/p>\n<p>After it was established in 1975, the SPR was quickly stocked throughout the 1980s, remaining relatively stable during the next three decades and even reaching a high of over 715 million barrels around 2010.<\/p>\n<p>The oil crisis also motivated the government to encourage more domestic oil production, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/1973-energy-crisis-definition-5222090\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reducing<\/a> the nation\u2019s reliance on OPEC oil from around 70% of total oil imports in the early \u201970s to around 16% <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/tools\/faqs\/faq.php?id=727&#038;t=6#:~:text=Crude%20oil%20imports%20of%20about,%2C%20and%20U.S.%20Virgin%20Islands).\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">today<\/a>. The U.S. also sources a majority of its oil imports from Canada. Still, the U.S. imports over 8 million barrels of oil per day from around the world, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/tools\/faqs\/faq.php?id=727&#038;t=6#:~:text=Crude%20oil%20imports%20of%20about,%2C%20and%20U.S.%20Virgin%20Islands).\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to the Energy Information Administration, and as shown by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/higher-bills-for-american-families-house-republicans-demand-answers-from-biden-administration-on-energy-crisis\/\" title=\"\u2018Higher Bills For American Families\u2019: House Republicans Demand Answers From Biden Administration On Energy Crisis\">global supply chain disruptions<\/a> seen during the pandemic, global events can still wreak havoc on domestic prices.<\/p>\n<p>The SPR was not intended to be used as the president\u2019s oil piggy bank \u2014 broken open to drive down gas prices and shore up his party\u2019s chances in the upcoming midterms. It\u2019s there to stave off the gas lines that marked the 1973 oil crisis and keep the military machine going in the event the nation is cut off from overseas oil.<\/p>\n<p>A full-scale conflict in the Middle East \u2014 home to major oil exporters like Iraq and Saudi Arabia \u2014 or a war between the U.S. and China in the Pacific would certainly sow discord in global trade. If global tensions continue to escalate and the SPR remains understocked, the president threatens to leave the nation disastrously short of a critical product for a significant length of time.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the Biden administration aims for green solutions, oil&#8217;s importance to the U.S. and global economy persists. Accessibility to oil can dictate a nation&#8217;s wealth or ruin. Recent actions by the Biden administration underscore the delicate balance between green initiatives and oil dependency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1548,"featured_media":2213997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/03\/1321A046-5EA3-4A64-B259-6408C7E61C4C-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2213996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/03\/1321A046-5EA3-4A64-B259-6408C7E61C4C-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2213996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2213997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2213996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2213996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2213996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}