In Midterms Ploy, Biden Raids Strategic Petroleum Reserves

The Biden administration has finally discovered an energy emergency after all … inflationary gas, food, and other commodity prices that pose dire threats to their party’s hold on a congressional majority.

It’s not as if America doesn’t have enough of the stuff. We’ve got plenty, and until recently — before Joe took office — were not only energy independent, but also a net exporter.

Since that time, however, there’s a big problem. In order (somehow) to save the planet, his administration and party minions have decided it’s best to leave most of ours in the ground and buy more from OPEC+, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, and yup, even Russia.

After all, the Biden administration has been relying on Russia to negotiate Iran’s return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aka, “Iran Nuclear Deal,” with reports that Vladimir Putin recently traveled to Tehran for friendly talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei … but probably not regarding how to benefit America.

And since time is of the essence ahead of midterm elections, there’s also another emergency source to tap…siphoning America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) which was created to protect us in the absence of a sudden supply disruption such as a hurricane or cyberattack.

Biden previously raided the SPR earlier this year, even bragging about sending some of it offshore to Europe and Asia.

Very mystifying amid desperate U.S. shortages, is his decision that transferred 950,000 of those emergency SPR barrels to China … a country that is Russia’s main market to support its war against Ukraine that he has blamed for America’s skyrocketing pump prices.

Even more disturbingly curious, is contemplating why that China sale went to Unipec, the trading arm of the China Petrochemical Corporation — better known as Sinopec, which former V.P. Biden’s son Hunter’s private equity firm, BHR Partners, bought a $1.7 billion stake in seven years ago.

Unipec’s bid was selected by the Department of Energy as only one of 12 among 126 foreign bids submitted to receive part of the SPR offering based upon the “price-competitive sale.”

The Washington Examiner reported that Hunter remained listed as a 10% owner of BHR through Skaneateles, another company he solely owned, as recently as last March.

In any case, it might be logical to assume that Unipec’s bid had already been prepared and was likely being vetted under DOE review by that time.

According to the nonprofit Institute for Energy Research, by the end of October, when the drawdown is set to expire, the SPR is expected to shrink to a 40-year low with inventories predicted at 358 million barrels, compared to 621 million a year ago.

When the latest reserve tap was announced in July, “Goldman Sachs revised its forecast for gasoline prices upward to $5 a gallon by the end of the year,” the Institute reported.

This prediction dramatically contradicts Biden’s braggadocio about self-proclaimed success in lowering gas prices and claiming that his administration is making steady progress on tackling inflation.

Even with the SPR drain contributing to a likely temporary 10.6% decline in the gasoline index in recent weeks from record highs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index which showed a 0.1% increase overall for the month of August states that the index for all items less food and energy rose 0.6%, a larger increase than in July.

The national average price of gas is still more than $1 higher than it was when Biden took office and declared war on energy independence, and the BLS reports that “Over the last 12 months, all indexed items increased 8.3 percent before seasonal adjustment.”

Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has few glad tidings to share about circumstances getting better any time soon, warning on CNN that with the EU halting most Russian oil purchases and banning Russia from shipping oil by tanker, gas prices are likely to skyrocket to near previous highs this winter.

“It is possible that that could cause a spike in oil prices,” Yellen said.

Meanwhile, as the Biden administration pleads with other countries to release oil from their reserves, the EU — Germany in particular — is buying up all the global supplies they can find.

So dire is Germany’s condition that the government has agreed to nationalize the country's biggest natural gas importer, Uniper, which has already virtually declared a shortage emergency after being forced to withdraw fuel from its own storage sites to replace cutbacks in Russia deliveries.

Having eviscerated their own fossil and nuclear industries to become dependent on Russian oil and natural gas, Europe faces a stiff challenge in socking away enough to get through next winter while there is time to do so.

In the process, they are scooping up nearly a third of the world's exported liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the same time that recently energy-independent America is also desperately seeking foreign imports.

So, the solution?

In a letter obtained by CNN, a frantic group of eight House Democrats wrote to Biden asking him to release even more from the strategic oil reserve, urging: "With the national average of gas and oil prices still too high, it is clear Americans will need continued relief for the foreseeable future."

The Americans they are most concerned about needing relief are fellow Democrats running scared ahead of a terrifying foreseeable future they face in November elections.