Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry deplores Biden’s use of Strategic Petroleum Reserve

FIRST ON FOX: Former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry slammed President Biden’s decision to tap into the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve, saying Biden was misusing a critical resource.

“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a tool available to the Secretary of Energy to provide short term relief to the market during times of emergency, including natural disasters or unexpected disruptions in the oil market,” Perry, a Republican who was also governor of Texas, said in a statement provided to Fox Business Tuesday. “This is not that time. High energy prices are a direct result of a coordinated and deliberate effort by the White House to destroy the fossil fuel industry, and the American people are paying the price.”

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The White House announced Tuesday that Biden would release oil from the reserve, arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent challenging economic recovery has caused elevated gas and energy prices that have harmed American consumers.

“Today, the President is announcing that the Department of Energy will make available releases of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices for Americans and address the mismatch between demand exiting the pandemic and supply,” the White House said in a press release.

President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci / AP Newsroom)

The decision was made in conjunction with other major energy-consuming countries from across the world, including India, Japan, China, the United Kingdom and South Korea.

Gas prices in the U.S. have risen throughout the year, with prices over Thanksgiving expected to be over a dollar more per gallon than at the same time last year, according to an analysis by AAA.

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But Perry argued that blame for the skyrocketing prices can be pinned on Biden’s own policies, suggesting that a return to Trump-era energy policies could help mitigate prices for Americans without tapping into the reserve.

 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

“If the Biden Administration were serious about providing long-term relief to American consumers, they would simply resume the all-of-the-above playbook we handed them,” Perry said. “Instead of building on the historic energy success and climate reductions achieved during the Trump Administration, they have let the environmental lobby drive their policy agenda, while destroying American Energy Independence within months. Americans will remember.”