Since the creation of the Strategic Oil Reserve in the mid-1970s, America has never been in the energy dilemma it is today, thanks to the Biden administration selling much of its oil reserves to countries like China.

This is an invisible trap that most Americans are unaware of, but it has everything to do with inflation, recession and national security. If OPEC, Russia, and China succeed in tapping their suddenly depleted energy reserves, Americans may soon feel the pain of rising prices, supply shortages, and economic stagnation.

Under President Joe Biden, this depletion of oil reserves masks the political problems that President Biden blames on Russia. But the dog doesn’t hunt. Let me explain:

Remember, it took only a year after Biden became president for Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. Putin also occupied part of Crimea during the presidency of Barack Obama. (Related: David Blackmon: What Climate Change Masters Don’t Understand About Fossil Fuels)

Putin put his Ukrainian ambitions on hold during the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency. Like him or not, Trump was the president Putin didn’t want to be involved with. For four years, America was strong enough to thwart the expansion plans of Russian moguls until the fateful day when American voters elected a man who would barely leave his basement to apparently campaign for president. I had.

For Biden, the doubling of oil prices under his administration was a serious problem from 2022. A strategic oil reserve was his solution to calm the American public after gasoline prices rapidly doubled last year.

In this way, oil drained from the Strategic Stockpile every month, invisibly curbing the supply problems Biden was causing with other anti-oil policies. Much of the oil sold by the Biden administration went to companies that acted as intermediaries with China.

how much oil? You can actually hear its echoes in the salt caves. Last year, the Department of Energy sold Remove more than 180 million barrels of spare barrels. This equates to approximately 21 gallons of crude oil for every man, woman and child in the United States.

The Biden administration has used up nearly a third of its emergency reserves in a year alone, with more slated for sale. The government says its efforts have lowered gasoline prices by between 17 and 42 cents compared to what they would have been without the measures.

The reserve, which can store 714 million barrels of crude oil, is intended as a deterrent against adverse OPEC actions and is believed to help the country gain an edge in foreign policy.

But now, with just 346 million barrels left, OPEC and its sidecar Russia can read the charts. Not only has the US run out of emergency supplies, it has not allowed the development of enough domestic oil to meet its needs.

Military power is one switch on the world’s geopolitical chessboard, and the US still has it — we hope it does. Oil production is also a big player and in some ways the queen with more movement.

Opponent announces next move: Saudi Arabia cut Increase crude oil production by 1 million barrels per day from July 1st.

Russia is still subject to oil sanctions by Western powers and moves oil across the sea despite the sanctions. Before the G7 changed rules on Russia’s exports to the West in 2022, Russia was exporting 33,000 barrels of refined products a day to the African continent. By March 2023, it has increased its shipments to Africa to 420,000 barrels per day.

Russian oil Continue It will trade above the $60 price cap set by the embargoed countries in December. In July, Russian Ural crude futures broke the $60 cap and are now trading above $63, the level at the time Russia invaded Ukraine and before G7 sanctions were announced. is almost the same as

To drive prices higher, Russia plans to cut crude oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day from August, while Saudi Arabia is also scaling back.

Therefore, the price cap on Russia had only a temporary effect.

As the chess pieces move on the board, President Biden will be forced to buy oil to replenish the Strategic Oil Reserve at a price higher than the price at which he sold the stockpiled oil to China last year. Or maybe they simply don’t replenish their supplies and hope for the best.

Hope is a bad strategy. The storage cave is half empty. The US uses 20 million barrels a day, so emergency oil supplies are limited to 17 days.

The Biden administration is putting us on edge and Americans should hope and pray for a warm winter. Because our home heating bill may be more than we can afford in January.

Suzanne Downing is the publisher of “Must Read Alaska”.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

All content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, non-partisan news distribution service, is available free of charge to legitimate news publishers capable of serving large audiences. All reissues must include our company logo, press byline, and DCNF affiliation. If you have any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact us at licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.