How long ago was 1984?
Let's put it this way.
Joe Biden was coherent.
This is the platform he was running on in 1984.
We'd be lucky today if we could get most Republican candidates to sign up for something as fiscally responsible as these campaign promises.
In any case, we're stuck with Joe Biden 2022.
And this Joe Biden is draining our Strategic Petroleum Reserve like Nancy Pelosi drains the blood from her unwitting victims in a desperate attempt stave off death one more day although that is conjecture on my part.
Informed conjecture.
However, a little background first:
The purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, is to ensure that market disruptions in the production or delivery of petroleum products would not in any way endanger the Democratic Party's reelection prospects.
Wait, that's the modern use of the SPR, it was in fact signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1974 to provide a cushion should oil supplies be disrupted. The establishment of the SPR followed the gas lines and rationing of the previous years resulting from the Mid-East oil embargo.
As you can see from the chart below, the first decade of its existence was spent filling, getting over 500 million barrels by 1985.
Biden's plan to draw it down by a million barrels a day for 90 days (begun in earnest last month) will bring total reserves closer to 450 million, a number not seen since that initial fill period.
You may have heard that former President Donald Trump was making claims that he had filled the reserves.
"So after 50 years of being virtually empty, I built up our oil reserves during my administration, and low energy prices, to 100% full. It's called the Strategic National Reserves, and it hasn't been full for many decades. In fact, it's been mostly empty."
None of that is true, as can clearly be seen from the charts. However there was something very interesting from the Forbes "fact check" debunking his claim. They concede that Trump had signed a directive to fill the SPR in the early days of the Covid Pandemic. But then said this:
That directive may be the source of President Trump's confusion on the issue. However, 1). The directive was never carried out; and 2). The SPR was already within 13% of its highest-ever level when that directive was issued. So it's not as if the SPR was empty at the time.
That's all they say about it. I thought that was odd. I also thought it was odd that it was "never carried out." That's extremely passive language clearly intended to leave the reader assuming Trump never followed through, "another" example of his mouth getting ahead of his actions.
But that's not what happened.
This is what happened.
Roll Call reported on the Democrats' effort to halt Trump's plan in March 2020 and take credit for a strike on Big Oil:
"The Trump administration's plan to top off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ran into a blockade Wednesday after lawmakers excluded $3 billion in funding for oil purchases from the massive stimulus package before Congress. Senate Democrats took credit for stripping out that money from the Senate bill, unveiled Wednesday, calling it a "bailout" for the oil industry."
While the fact checkers at Forbes were correct in pointing out that the reserves had not been empty, they were not content with that. They had to be too cute by half and edit out the fact that the reason they had not been topped off during extremely low gas prices as the economy was forcibly shut down was not because of Trump's neglect. It was due to concerted and deliberate efforts on the part of Democrats.
You might be wondering whether drawing down strategic reserves of petroleum to levels not seen since we started filling it might have some security ramifications.
During the White House daily press briefing, the former Pentagon spokesman was asked by Fox News' Peter Doocy, "How much lower can we let the strategic petroleum reserves get before that becomes a problem?"
Not to worry, the spokesperson for the department responsible for our national security says you should instead ask someone who is not responsible for our national security.
"I think I would refer to the president's energy advisers on something like that, Peter," he said. "I don't know what the inventory is,..."
See, he doesn't "know what the inventory is."
Of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
I know what it is. I knew what it was before I started writing this piece. It's been all over the news. You probably knew too.
Our Pentagon spokesperson?
But not to worry, they totally plan to refill it!
The Biden administration plans to seek bids this fall to buy 60 million barrels of crude oil as the first step in a years-long process aimed at replenishing America's emergency oil reserve, an Energy Department official told CNN.
Don't think they're serious? They are so serious they announced a plan!
The Energy Department plans to announce the launch of the long-term buyback plan on Thursday to show officials are serious about eventually refilling the SPR, which has been drained by the war in Ukraine and sales mandated by Congress to raise revenue.
You know. "Eventually." Some day. Probably.
But that will take time. Delivery of the first tranche of 60 million barrels will take place in unspecified future years, the Energy Department official said, adding it will be paid for with revenue received from ongoing emergency sales.
That's really not a plan so much as an aspiration, like my "plan" to learn to play guitar.
Which I definitely expect will take place in unspecified future years.
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