On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks said that Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases “never” work and he is “guardedly skeptical” that President Joe Biden’s plan to release from the SPR “is going to do much” to lower gas prices.
Brooks stated, “Presidents always do this. They always release from the reserve, and it never works. Now, in Biden’s — to his credit, this release is way bigger than any other president has done. And so, they’re trying to dump stuff on the market. And they’re saying that it may produce a 10, 15, 20 percent gain per gallon at the pump. And so, that would have some effect. That is far from certain. Because when we release from the reserve, the markets think, well, they’re releasing now, but they’re going to have to put back in the reserve. And so, the markets can think long-term and think, well, that’s not going to really reduce demand. Second, we’re not the only people producing oil…OPEC could say, we want to keep prices up. If they’re releasing, we’ll just limit our supply for a little while. And so, there are plenty of other actors who have the chance to mess with our plans.”
He concluded, “And so, I remain, I guess I would say, guardedly skeptical that this is going to do much for the people who are paying 60, 70 bucks to fill up their tank.”
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