Why is Joe Biden releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserves? Economic expert Phillip Patrick joins us in the discussion as to whether this is legitimately about the prices of oil, or just a slick political trick.
Phillip Patrick says:
- It’s a cynical ploy to lower prices at the pump to get Democrats a bit of relief.
- It’s using an American strategic asset to do so! The equivalent of taking the Army and hiring them out for construction work.
- And it’s collusion with a number of other nations (anti-free market) – though this is a weak argument.
- They hope this will bring down gas prices, thus artificially bringing down inflation numbers.
Why is Biden releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserves?
Interview Opportunity with tangible assets analyst Phillip Patrick
Suggested host intro: Gas prices during the Biden Administration are double what they were under President Trump. Why? Well, let’s see, so far, Joe Biden has been working diligently at shutting down two different oil pipelines. Oh, and it was just announced that Biden has now decided to release 50 million barrels of oil in the U.S. Strategic Reserves. So does the Biden administration want more oil or less? Joining us to help make sense of what appears to be senseless is Phillip Patrick, tangible assets expert with Birch Gold Group.
Q&A:
1) Phillip, usually, aren’t the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserves supposed to be used to help Americans during crises? What exactly about the current situation qualifies as a crisis?
Answer:
Yes, they’re intended for crises. For example, back in 2017, under the Trump administration released 5.2 million barrels of oil to our Gulf Coast oil refineries when Hurricane Harvey shut down much of their capacity.
In comparison, what Biden did was coordinate a number of nations, including India, China, South Korea and Japan to all release oil from their own strategic reserves.
This is an attempt to strike back at OPEC+ who recently refused to increase its crude oil output. Biden’s worried about losing votes over gas prices, and he should.
This is an attempt to lower fuel prices. We could call it a response to a legitimate crisis, a crisis of inflation.
And it would make sense if it were coordinated with other anti-inflationary tactics. This issue is, massive government spending is throwing fuel, if you will, on the inflation fire. Fifty million barrels of oil is just a drop in the bucket, literally half of what the world needs per DAY.
This is a cynical political ploy that allows Biden to say, “See, we’re doing something about it.” Mainstream media will likely be reporting on this, rather than the ongoing government spending spree that’s going to drive inflation much, much higher than we’re seeing right now.
2) Taking that a bit further, do you think the Biden administration had any idea their efforts to shut down the Line 5 and Keystone XL pipelines would have on gas prices?
Answer:
Of course, they did, and it’s not just the pipelines. Biden also stopped auctions of federal land to oil and gas drillers. They had to understand prices would go up, right? It’s simple economics. Reduce supply, and if demand stays constant, prices rise. What they didn’t expect was so much political heat.
He’s miscalculated. Voters might care about climate change or environmental issues. But they care a whole lot more about watching gas prices go up 50% in just one year. Most people simply don’t have the choice NOT to drive.
And it doesn’t help to say, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll all be driving electric cars in a few years anyway.” This is a problem TODAY, RIGHT NOW.
What makes it even worse is that fuel price rises push up prices for everything that needs to be transported. That means food, manufactured goods, just about everything you buy costs a whole lot more.
3) Regarding inflation, why do we see government statistics for inflation in single digits while everyday items like gas and groceries are clearly in double digits?
Answer: That’s because those categories are exempt from what the government calls the volatile nature of food and gas.
If we look at the same metrics the Federal Reserve used to measure inflation back in the 1980s, we see that today’s inflation is truly closer to 15%. That number is a whole lot closer to the reality everyday Americans are seeing right now.
4) Recently, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked by a reporter how many barrels of oil are consumed daily in the U.S. She admitted that she did not know. What do you make of that?
Answer:
She hadn’t prepped for the question because she wanted reporters to ask how quickly we would be shifting to a carbon-free, solar, and wind-powered economy.
Look: Oil isn’t a priority for the Biden administration. It’s only an issue now because Congress is getting calls from their constituents asking, “What are you doing about gas prices?” and they’ve got be able to say SOMETHING.
In a sense, high gas prices are GOOD if you’re sketching out a carbon-neutral, totally green future. What this administration doesn’t get, though, is that’s a long-term, systemic change. That’s more or less what the recently passed infrastructure bill and this upcoming 2022 budget bill are about.
There’s just one problem… All this government spending is highly inflationary. If you think $5 a gallon for gas is high, how about $15 a gallon? $20? At 50% year-over-year inflation, as we’ve just seen, that’s not a fantasy.
And as I said before, higher fuel prices mean higher prices on everything.
5) What can the average person do as a hedge against inflation, and where can we get more information on the discussed topics?
Answer: We have plenty of free educational resources available at BirchGoldGroup.com
Phillip Patrick is a Precious Metals Specialist and a spokesman for Birch Gold Group. He was born in London and read for his politics and international relations degree at the prestigious University of Redding. He spent years as a wealth manager at Citigroup in London’s Wall Street before taking his current position with Birch Gold Group in 2012.
More background:
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/rounding-error-oil-prices-surge-biden-spr-release-backfires
CONTACT: Celinda Hawkins of Special Guests at jerry.specialguests@gmail.com
or call: (432) 349-2736, or contact Samantha Mao at jerry.specialguests@gmail.com
Hundreds of additional guests at: https://SpecialGuests.com/guests-topics/
