President Joe Biden’s administration is canceling the replenishment of Strategic Petroleum Reserves under the reasoning that oil has become too expensive. As if we didn’t know oil was pricey! Now his administration’s pause on the replenishment of oil certainly reinforces what many of us already knew.

A political news article on KPVI said Biden’s admin drained almost half of the United States oil reserves, hitting the lowest level in decades in hopes to lower gas prices.

For my own area, gas is still up more than $1.00 from when Trump was in office. I could get gas for $2.25 when he was in office. It is now $3.36 or higher in some areas around me. Gas prices are different in almost every city though, so it may be one price for me, but a slightly different price for others.

Earlier in his term, Biden drained about half of the U.S. oil reserves down to their lowest level in decades in order to try to lower gas prices, which surpassed a record national average of more than $5 per gallon in 2022 before coming back down. Now, Biden’s effort to replenish those reserves have been stalled.

Critics warn that lower oil reserves are a national security issue for the U.S. If the reserves are low when a larger war or crisis occurs, refilling the reserves could be much more difficult and certainly more expensive.