Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., told Newsmax on Thursday that President Joe Biden's plans to release an additional 15 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve is a "political gimmick."
Estes said on "American Agenda" that "the whole intention" for creating the strategic petroleum reserve "was after OPEC cut off gas for the United States and the world. We couldn't produce it, and the whole intention was to have that as a backstop.
"Now President Biden's throwing that away with a political gimmick, and actually, he's selling oil to China for them to put in their strategic petroleum reserve while he depletes ours."
He went on to say, "It really does take time" to replenish the reserve, "because to build it back up, it means you're taking oil off of the marketplace that is used for the current economy and having to put that [aside and] save it for the future. So it's … making those decisions to look at the future, and how do we work for the future as well as helping the economy?"
Estes said: "It's where, 19 days until the midterms, President Biden has been trying to figure out how to see lower gas prices because his policies made them so bad.
"You know, we're now paying $4 out of every $5 extra that we're paying in gas is because of Biden's policies before [Russian President Vladimir] Putin invaded Ukraine, and only $1 out of that $5 is because it has come after Putin invaded."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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