Silver State Times

The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) recently announced a transparency litigation against the Department of Energy (DOE) on the account that it refuses to release information about Biden's major releases from the emergency crude oil reserve amid rising gas prices. 

Gas prices are still high across the country and in Nevada. The latest Gasoline Misery Index, which tracks how much more (or less) the average American consumer is paying for gasoline on an annualized basis, shows that on average, Nevadans will spend $905 more annually on gasoline now than they did at this time last year.

After being denied requested records on the Biden administration’s decision to release millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), the FGI announced transparency litigation against the Department of Energy, according to FGI's latest press release.

"With each release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we weaken our ability to respond to a legitimate supply crisis," FGI spokesperson Peter McGinnis said in the press release. "The SPR was created to respond to real emergencies, a category that does not include falling poll numbers caused by a failed energy policy. Americans deserve to know if political motives are behind moves that put their security at risk." 

In November 2021, as gas prices skyrocketed, the Biden administration announced it was going to tap into the SPR and withdraw 50 million barrels of emergency crude oil, CNBC News reported. In the early 1970s, the SPR was created by Congress following the Arab oil embargo with the intent to maintain a reserve to address severe disruptions in supply.

The FGI points out that there has been no major disruption in the oil supply that would have warranted such a withdrawal. However, the Colonial Pipeline hacking attack in May of 2021, which disrupted fuel supplies to the East Coast, did not trigger a release from the SPR.

FGI said its document request was triggered by concerns that the administration's decision to draw so much oil was in response to the administration’s falling approval numbers, due in part to rising gas prices, rather than disruptions in supplies. The administration has since made additional releases from the SPR this year following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. FGI said these releases have depleted the reserve to dangerous levels not seen since the 1980s.

In January 2022, FGI opened up an investigation into the decision to release the first 50 million barrels from the SPR. Despite FGI's repeated efforts to work with DOE during this investigation, the agency has not complied with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the FGI said it believes this lawsuit is the only way to force DOE to release the records that could reveal to Americans "the true basis for this unprecedented drawdown of the SPR."

The Biden administration reportedly exported 5 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to countries in Europe and Asia last month, according to Reuters. Cargoes of SPR crude were sent to the Netherlands and to a Reliance refinery in India, industry sources told Reuters. Additionally, a third cargo is headed to China and U.S. Customs data shows the fourth-largest U.S. oil refiner, Phillips 66, shipped about 470,000 barrels of sour crude from the Big Hill SPR storage site in Texas to Trieste, Italy.

On March 31, President Joe Biden announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's SPR over a six-month period in his effort to curb high gas prices. The president said there would be a slight delay in declining gas prices by days and weeks, but the prices would drop by an unknown range. He further claimed, "it could come down fairly significantly. It could come down [to] a better part of anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon, it’s unknown at this point.”