Tokyo – Archyde.com
An official in the US administration said, on Monday, that the White House is considering issuing an emergency declaration to withdraw quantities of diesel from a rarely used stockpile; In an attempt to address a severe shortage of supplies, and a sharp rise in prices.
US President Joe Biden announced that addressing inflation and high gas prices is a priority for his administration before the congressional elections to be held next November. And Republicans are seeking to control Congress, and took advantage of high prices to hit the Democrats.
The White House is looking into the use of fuel reserves in the Northeast region (North-east Home Heating Oil Reserve), which was established in 2000 to help solve supply problems, and was used only once in 2012 following Hurricane Sandy.
The effect of such clouds will be limited, because this reservoir is relatively small; It contains only one million barrels of diesel.
“We have established the precautionary option to get one step ahead of problems, and we will not hesitate to use it, as are the other avenues we have available to support families and recovery,” a White House official said.
The average price of diesel was $5.56 per gallon on Sunday, just slightly below last week’s record high of $5.58, according to a motorists’ rights group, and that’s a 75 percent increase year-on-year.
The Biden administration used emergency oil stocks, called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to help counter rising energy prices.
The stockpile currently contains 420 million barrels of crude oil, despite recent withdrawals.
