"we're in good shape"?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/23/politics/biden-oil-reserves-gas-prices/index.html

This seems insane to me and is purely political (with late timing too). Energy prices, IMO, aren't high enough to justify releasing this amount of oil and the reserves should only be tapped in cases where our national security is threatened. Anyway, this is probably just theater to make it seem like he's fighting inflation but it's a stupid policy.

Releasing 50m barrels from a reserve of 604m won't undermine the ability to respond to hypothetical crises or national security threads. But yes, it's poliiticking and won't achieve much. The calculus of the Biden admin seems to be that oil and gas prices will come back down in spring anyway, so he only needs to get over this winter without his electorate becoming too pissed off in the meantime. I'm pretty sure that this calculus is wrong, but we'll see.

I guess I don't understand the point because people have short memories. If prices will come down anyway, then why bother doing anything about it?

why release oil barrels when there is no inflation? hello?

Because neither he nor his admin have any upside. They will have a much harder time to make up lost ground in the polls than, say, Trump or Obama who had a large, enthusiastic base. So even if voters have forgotten the "transitory inflation" from the previous winter by the time the midterms come around, the general sense of dissatisfaction will imho not go away. Just look at the way Afghanistan dealt a heavy hit to Biden's approval and how he hasn't recovered even though Afghanistan has long faded from the news cycle.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 23 2021 01:25pm

There are a few things that are more cringe than people clapping when the plane lands...

And people blaming the POTUS in his first year in office on gas prices is one of them. Just makes me feel sad for the American education system and how much of a failure it is. We're talking simple economics that people don't understand. HOW it can be the year 2021 and people still don't understand what dictates gas prices is beyond me.


We all have that drunk uneducated uncle that sits at the dinner table and says "GOT DAYUM BIDEN AND THOSE GAS PRICES, SHOULDNT HAVE SHUT PIPELINES DOWN ITS ALL HIS FAULT" lmao

This post was edited by Sixers on Nov 23 2021 03:04pm

Biden's moves to shut down pipelines and crack down on fracking surely didn't help. Also keep in mind that his political agenda contains a long-term move away from fossils which will further decrease the investment climate among domestic producers.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Nov 23 2021 04:02pm

There's no connection between Biden's decision on the Keystone XL pipeline and the increased gas prices. Even if construction wasn't halted, the Keystone XL pipeline wasn't in operation, and wouldn't have been in operation for a long time. Therefore it wouldn't have an impact on current gas prices at all.

In regards to fracking; Biden promised a ban and he has done the complete opposite, in fact he has pushed for more of it....


So again, none of this is the reason for the high gas prices. These are all just common bullshit things you see posted on Facebook that people repeat time and time again, but none of them are actually the cause. Gas prices are high globally, not just in the U.S. It's a simple case of supply and demand as the global economy rebounds from the pandemic and demand is at an all-time high while the supply is still catching up and in many cases still limited due to covid-19 protocols. It doesn't matter who would be in office right now, the gas prices would go up just like they are everywhere else....

This post was edited by Sixers on Nov 23 2021 04:20pm

yes and no, there is a psychological component to prices and if you shut down a project, that results in a massive amount of lost money that was already invested, the price goes up



i dont think its not as much about the price, but an attempt to prevent another shortage with an incoming winter

anyway, its reasonable to throw some out there