White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared to short-circuit when Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy pressed her as to why President Joe Biden is refusing to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve like he promised to after draining half of it during a period of high oil prices earlier in his term.
Doocy began his question by saying that Biden promised to refill the SPR while claiming that the president had only been draining it to offset the increase in gas prices, which he had attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“First, the — so, you guys started draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try and help with ‘the Putin Price Hike’ a few years ago. Said you were going to refill it. But now it doesn’t seem like that’s happening. Why?” Doocy asked.
Jean-Pierre deflected responsibility to the Department of Energy and suggested that the issue was not whether the tank would be refilled, but how it would be done during a halting response.
“Well, from — I believe the Department of Energy is — is responsible for — for that particular component — is refilling — refilling that, so I would refer to the Department of Energy. I know there are certain components to that and how they were going to move forward and refilling — refilling it. Uh — I — they would have had more specifics on that for you,” she said.
WATCH:
Never mind that KJP is easily the worst press secretary in the history of the position.
You have to believe that draining and then not refilling our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a purposeful act to reduce our national security.
Democrats HATE this country. pic.twitter.com/fFtlnU2yCk
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) April 3, 2024
Reports broke earlier on Wednesday stating that the Biden administration would not be refilling the SPR as originally planned, citing the high cost of oil as a barrier to getting that done.
The Department of Energy has canceled its latest tender for crude oil for the replenishment of the strategic petroleum reserve after oil prices moved higher than the DoE is comfortable with.
Last month, the DoE purchased 2.8 million barrels at a price of $81 per barrel, which… pic.twitter.com/PDu7IwP7or
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) April 3, 2024
“We will not award the current solicitations for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and will solicit available capacity as market conditions allow,” the Department of Energy said. “We will continue to monitor market dynamics.”
Daniel Turner, founder and executive director for Power The Future, released a statement on the move, saying, “[President] Joe Biden drained the SPR for political reasons, cut our domestic production for his climate agenda, and now he’s leaving our critical reserve more vulnerable because he’s incompetent. As a result, Americans are paying more at the pump, more at the grocery store and our SPR is less full during a time of rising turmoil in the Middle East.”
