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Biden Is Destroying Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve: If you understand what it’s for and how it functions, it’s apparent that Biden is despoiling a national treasure and taking our security with it
American Thinker ^ | 10/26/2022 | William Duncan

Posted on 10/26/2022 9:33:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is a national treasure. Frighteningly, Biden is rapidly despoiling this treasure.

The Reserve consists of four sites (Bryan Mound, Big Hill, Bayou Choctaw, and West Hackberry) with a combined storage capacity of 714 million barrels of crude oil. It is the largest strategic oil reserve in the world.

The OPEC oil embargo of 1973 and the resultant oil crisis contributed to western governments’ recognition of how vulnerable their countries were to disruptions in Middle East oil. As a result, SPR was authorized by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (P.L. 94-163), signed into law by President Gerald Ford on December 22, 1975. Construction on the Reserve began in 1977 and was completed in the early 1990s.

The SPR anchors the world’s collective energy security system. By ensuring that the SPR remains a reliable asset within the IEA collective action framework, the United States leads by example, encouraging other countries to maintain their own reserves of crude oil and petroleum products, and to deploy those reserves in a collective manner. This leverages the effectiveness of the United States strategic reserves and benefits the United States to a greater degree than would be possible with only the SPR.1

SPR crude oil is stored in underground caverns leached in salt domes at the four sites. There are approximately 60 caverns ranging in size from 6 to 37 million barrels in capacity. A typical cavern holds 10 million barrels and is cylindrical in shape with a diameter of 200 feet and a height of 2,500 feet.2

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: biden; bidenadm; energy; fjb; nationalsecurity; oil; spr
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1 posted on 10/26/2022 9:33:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
Even if the Administration does commence refill, the process will take years. The highest fill rate the SPR has achieved is 292,000 barrels per day (BPD) in 1981.11 At that rate (assuming it can be achieved) it will take over three years to refill the Reserve to capacity—and that assumes perfect execution and no supply or logistical glitches. Moreover, it is questionable if that rate can be achieved because, in the early years, the SPR was filling empty storage caverns. Now, they’ll be topping off caverns, a process that is logistically more difficult.

Refilling the Reserve will be a political decision. The cost of refilling the Reserve, assuming oil purchases in the $67-$72 per barrel price range will be between $26.1 billion and $27.3 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the price of crude could go as high as $120 per BBL.12 At that price, refilling the Reserve would cost a whopping $47 billion.

In March of 2020, former President Donald Trump wanted to fill up the SPR, and wanted to include in a stimulus package before Congress $3 billion to take advantage of lower oil prices that had fallen earlier that month. Democrats, in their infinite wisdom, removed the $3 billion out of the stimulus package.13

If Congress was reluctant to spend $3 billion two years ago, how willing will Congress be to spend eight times that much in 2023? Even if Republicans take control of Congress, will they have enough votes to override a possible presidential veto?

A full SPR acts as a deterrent to oil embargoes since it delays the impact of an embargo by four months. Already, that deterrent has been reduced by half. It could go even lower this winter.
2 posted on 10/26/2022 9:34:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

liberals are a threat to national security.


3 posted on 10/26/2022 9:38:39 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

Biden is a vegetable. He decides nothing.

His left-wing handlers and string-pullers, are, typically of all leftists, will do ANYTHING, no matter how outrageous, for the sake of short-term power.

They will sell the SPR down to zero if their immediate goals depend on it.


5 posted on 10/26/2022 9:41:01 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: SeekAndFind

Shouldn’t Congress have a say-so over the Reserve? They have the ‘Power of the Purse’. That is a valuable piece of property and is fungible................BTW, who gets the money when it is sold off? and where does it go?....................


6 posted on 10/26/2022 9:43:42 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: SeekAndFind

Sometimes i wonder if there is any oil in those caverns kinda like fort knox ???


7 posted on 10/26/2022 9:43:56 AM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom Hi Dad)
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To: SeekAndFind

Biden is flat out evil. He just doesn’t care about anything but Joe Biden.


8 posted on 10/26/2022 9:47:01 AM PDT by brownsfan (It's going to take real, serious, hard times to wake the American public.)
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9 posted on 10/26/2022 9:52:48 AM PDT by proust (All posts made under this handle are, for the intents and purposes of the author, considered satire.)
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To: Red Badger

Biden’s claim to be doing “everything” in his power to reduce gas prices runs contrary to the White House’s energy policy since day one of his administration.

Biden immediately closed off public lands from new oil and gas leases for 18 months upon his inauguration, freezing investment in the capital- and labor-intensive industry while a cascade of taxes and regulations from the Department of the Interior suppressed production even further.

Biden also blocked plans for a major oil refinery in the Virgin Islands, keeping U.S. refining capacity on a downward trajectory after decades of decline.

Biden has repeatedly turned to the oil reserve throughout his first two years in office whenever gas prices approach new records, antagonizing voters who are already stressed by four-decade-high inflation.

Last November, the president tapped the reserve for 50 million barrels of oil ahead of Thanksgiving. Months later, Biden looked to the reserve again for 30 million barrels at the onset of Russia’s war with Ukraine.

The White House followed up that release with the unprecedented 180 million barrels drawn out to coincide with the midterms season. His decision now to tap another 15 million barrels just before Election Day signals he’s doing everything in his power to avoid unleashing domestic power production, contrary to his claims at the White House last week.

By the end of the year, Biden will have purged 275 million barrels of oil from the reserve, which has an authorized capacity of 714 million. According to the Department of Energy, the reserve now holds less than 400 million barrels of petroleum, marking its lowest level since 1984.

The emergency petroleum reserve, established in the 1970s to prepare the U.S. for a sudden and severe disruption in supply such as a hurricane hampering gulf coast refineries, has been transformed into the president’s personal oil bank to cash in on for political capital.

As to how effective the president’s releases have been at suppressing gas prices, consumers faced record pain at the pump this summer when the nationwide average gallon of regular unleaded gasoline eclipsed $5. In other words, gas prices continued to reach new peaks despite millions of barrels of oil flowing onto the market.

All it’s really doing is distorting the market and covering up Biden’s seeking to limit and curtail the domestic production of oil in the United States.

So, you’re right - Joe Biden Will Keep Exploiting Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve Until Congress Stops Him.


10 posted on 10/26/2022 9:54:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: PGR88
House Republicans have repeatedly sought to intervene. In June, Democrats blocked for the seventh time Republicans’ “American Energy Independence from Russia Act,” which would have placed restrictions on White House use of the emergency petroleum reserve. The legislation would require the president to submit an energy security plan within a month of tapping the emergency stockpile and require the energy secretary to develop plans for replenishment.

While House Democrats have repeatedly blocked Republicans’ attempts to address our nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Biden has continued to deplete it. If Republicans win the majority, addressing the SPR will be a part of our comprehensive focus on increasing American energy production and security.

11 posted on 10/26/2022 9:55:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

IF PETROLEUM IN THE GROUND IS ‘BAD’, THEN WHY IS PETROLEUM IN A SALT DOME IN LOUSIANA ‘GOOD’?...............


12 posted on 10/26/2022 9:56:28 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: SeekAndFind

Its being used for purely political purposes, to keep democrats in power at all costs.

Joe Biden is interfering with elections and should be arrested for it


13 posted on 10/26/2022 9:57:41 AM PDT by Trump.Deplorable (Woke Fascists are a threat to our republic )
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To: All

Democrats tap into any government asset to help fund the welfare state


14 posted on 10/26/2022 9:57:51 AM PDT by SteveH
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To: SeekAndFind

The STRATEGIC MIDTERM RESERVE.


15 posted on 10/26/2022 10:01:39 AM PDT by MMusson
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To: SeekAndFind

Biden is not only destroying our strategic oil reserve, he is intentionally destroying the entire country, Captain Obvious.


16 posted on 10/26/2022 10:20:34 AM PDT by 353FMG (Secretly practicing my Putin swagger..)
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To: SeekAndFind
SPR is bad economics because it causes the private sector to have no reserves of any sort. Also we have a shortage of oil right now because of releases from the reserve because it doesn't pay to invest in more domestic pumping.
17 posted on 10/26/2022 10:31:51 AM PDT by palmer (Democracy Dies Six Ways from Sunday)
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To: proust

Yep

And half of America is clueless


18 posted on 10/26/2022 10:35:40 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: SeekAndFind

Of course he is destroying the SPR! He only gets $400k plus $50k of expenses per year, as President. A mere pittance compared to how many times more money he and his criminal family get from PRC, Ukraine, and WEF, just to name three. These countries/organizations pay for RESULTS! The XiJinBiden gang doesn’t want to disappoint!

LET’S GO BRANDON!


19 posted on 10/26/2022 10:41:09 AM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian ( Ceterum autem censeo Justinius True-dope-us esse delendam)
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To: SaveFerris

BINGO


20 posted on 10/26/2022 11:00:22 AM PDT by GailA (Constitution vs evil Treasonous political Apparatchiks, Constitutional Conservative.)
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