BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — As gas prices creep back up, President Joe Biden makes good on his promise, releasing millions of barrels of oil from federal reserves.
About ten minutes away from Baton Rouge is one of four Strategic Petroleum Reserves, with deep underground caverns, storing millions of barrels of crude oil.
In March, President Joe Biden announced his plan to release one million barrels of crude oil a day, for six months, to address the gas shortage caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine.
“For us as a nation, we are looking at the tools we have available and the President has decided that he is going to use the biggest tool in our arsenal which is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
Granholm and Governor John Bel Edwards toured the plant to look at where the reserve oil is coming from.
“We are so grateful to those who are working here because you can see because we are on a wartime footing your efforts have deep impact,” Granholm said.
Today the notice of sale is just over 40-million barrels of crude oil to contribute to the President’s mission. Representative Troy Carter said the is a bipartisan issue.
“Those people who pull up to those gas pumps, they are not republicans or democrats they are people,” Carter said.
Contract bids will open June through July. Bayou Choctaw will contribute up to 7.1 million barrels, hopefully bringing relief for so many at the pump.
Rep. Garret Graves also joined in the tour. In a press release he said the policy was flawed.
“Touring the strategic oil reserve site (SPR) today reinforces the key role that Louisiana plays in our nation’s energy security and I appreciate the opportunity to join the secretary. The briefing today also highlighted the millions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas offshore Louisiana that are being blocked by President Biden and contributing to record gas prices.”
“The SPR was not established to mitigate for bad energy policy. It is designed to be used for natural disasters and historical events like the 1970’s OPEC oil embargo against the United States,” Graves continued.