In 1973, Arab producers set an oil embargo on shipments to the United States and a few other nations for their support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
We had gasoline chaos with limited supplies and fuel rationing. I waited in long lines with millions of others as fuel was rationed by days, amounts, even license plate numbers.
To prevent that ever happening again, President Nixon and Congress created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a vast network of underground salt caves on the Gulf Coast to store more than 700 million barrels of oil for any such future energy emergencies. Like a smart energy savings account to keep in our secure possession a substantial supply of oil, the vital blood of our economy and daily lives.
We've witnessed a revealing pattern of behavior with those energy savings from our politicians.
The presidents of one of our major political parties have worked diligently and wisely to build up our national oil reserves underground as if they were important not only for our economy but also for national security. So the United States could protect its own policy decisions and not be blackmailed by foreign oil suppliers.
Those presidents carefully kept buying oil and stashing it away underground.
Presidents of the other party regularly withdrew oil from the underground coffers and sold it on the international market. Timed, every time, to upcoming elections. That strategy doesn't work that well, but it sounds good to their followers.
Perhaps you've guessed which party had which strategy.
President Reagan was the biggest oil buyer over the years, purchasing more than 400 million barrels. George W. Bush ordered the caverns filled to the brim after 9/11.
Congress stymied President Trump's request for funds to buy oil. But through deregulation and speedy permitting, he had already created the nation's first energy independence. We were producing so much oil and gas we were selling LNG abroad and weaning allies off their dangerous dependence on Russian energy supplies.
Democrat presidents named Clinton, Obama, and, infamously, Joseph R. Biden all withdrew large quantities from the energy savings account, all for political purposes, to help hold down gas prices before elections that voters see at the pump every time they fill up.
The first thing Biden did in office was cancel drilling leases, tighten permitting, and smother the nation's energy independence because he thinks fossil fuels are bad for the environment. And, anyway, everyone will be driving electric cars by 2035, you understand. He also killed the Keystone Pipeline, which by now would have been delivering 800,000 barrels of Canadian oil every day to Houston.
In 2022, Biden also drew down nearly 200 million barrels of reserves and sold them at a handsome profit on the international oil market. That took the reserves to their lowest level in four decades.
Those US Oil Reserves Joe Biden's Tapping to Lower Our Gas Prices Are Going Overseas
And now, faced with dismal election polling, the people who tell Joe Biden what to do instructed him to sell even more of the country's oil savings, hoping to temper gas prices before Election Day on Nov. 5.
Biden to Raid Strategic Oil Reserves Again in Desperate Bid
to Lower Gas Prices Before Election
Oh, did I mention Biden promised to refill the oil reserves immediately? He's broken that promise, too. The excuse has been that oil prices are too high to buy right now. As if they wouldn't soar much higher when the emergency comes.
So, the salt caverns remain historically low for any emergency.
Well, you might ask, why not use the nearly $20 billion he made selling oil that previous presidents bought cheap? It seems he quietly spent all that money on other stuff.
That's the topic of this week's audio commentary. Leave your own commentary in the Comments please.
After Joe Biden's twin Embarrass Tour trips to Europe this month, this week's Sunday column looks at that continent full of allies that Americans too often take for granted, especially in our election years.
Most of those countries are bound to us and each other by NATO's mutual defense clause. With Russia attempting to continue its territorial conquests in Ukraine, what happens in the new rash of elections in Europe ties us intimately to their fortunes and futures.
The most recent audio commentary examines why Americans appear impervious to the wonders of Bidenomics that the Democrat has touted so often. Why don't we buy Biden's claims that we have it so good economically these days? You might have your own answers.
