President Joe Biden's announcement on Wednesday directing the release of 15 million more barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserve marked the continuation of a yearlong binge during which more than 200 million barrels have been released and the U.S. stockpile has sunk to just over 400 million barrels – its lowest level since before the first Gulf War.
Though the U.S. reserve was originally meant to protect the homeland against "severe supply disruptions," Biden's releases have mostly been used as a mechanism to try to lower the price of gas domestically. The president and allied Democrats blame a variety of factors for higher gas prices, placing most of the onus on oil company greed and Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. Critics on the right, however, say the problem is the president's own energy policies stifling U.S production.
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