Biden's energy policies placing us at risk

Remember the long lines at the gas pumps? We are now again at risk if a real boycott or global supply crisis of petroleum occurs. The United States had an energy crisis when an oil embargo against the U.S. was imposed by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC). To protest American military support for Israel, in its 1973 war with Egypt and Syria, Arab oil producers cut off exports to the U.S. 1

Consequently, President Gerald Ford signed a policy that established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to prevent future energy crises in the US in 1975.2 So the SPR is used as a national security tool in times of disaster or other threats. In other words, to discourage foreign powers from trying to cut off the US oil supply.

Guess who released 190 million barrels of oil from this SPR in 2022 in order to lower the price of gas and help Democrats win the election?3 It is now at its lowest level in over 40 years. The U.S. taxpayer spent the money to build the SPR, and the U.S. voter is going to pay this price as a consumer or taxpayer.4

In April, Biden sold roughly one million barrels to Unipec, the trading arm of the China Petrochemical Corporation, which is wholly owned by the Chinese government. Foreign oil companies and international oil traders bought oil from the prior releases.

Wait a minute. Wasn’t it Biden, during his first month in office, who canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and implemented a moratorium on new gas leases on federal land? 5

President Trump achieved US energy independence during his tenure, and demonstrated that if government gets out of the way, oil companies can get at the vast supplies of oil and gas right under U.S. bedrock.6 By the way, in the final months of President Donald Trump’s presidency, he tried to replenish the SPR, at a time when oil was cheap.7 Unfortunately, Democrats cut out $3 billion in funding for oil purchases from the massive stimulus package before Congress in March of 2020 calling it a strike on Big Oil.

So our future looks dim, being on the edge of war with Russia and China, and our national security tool is in crisis mode. There is a word for those who would put their country in such a situation. But, the Word needed now is the Bible.

MAUREEN PATERSON

Priest River

[1] bit.ly/3QrCPO6

[2] bit.ly/3k0EGNo

[3] bit.ly/3Gp6AdB

[4] bit.ly/3IwFYKg

[5] bit.ly/3Gp6AdB

[6] bit.ly/3Gjnham

[7] bit.ly/3ZhaoWV