LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[janice shell]

We have about a months supply in our reserves or 750 million barrels. It would be far more beneficial if we built a few more refineries.

Well, he's releasing 50 million barrels. And it's not as if we're alone:

Biden is making the move in conjunction with similar moves by several other countries including China, Japan, South Korea and Britain. India, for instance, also announced it would release 5 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves.

So we'll see how it goes:

OPEC officials have warned of a response to Biden’s decision to tap the reserves, arguing that the release of millions of barrels in reserves is unjustified, according to Bloomberg. Biden has repeatedly called on OPEC to increase production to offset higher demand.

Biden administration officials have been in intense discussions with Saudi Arabia over the last several weeks, trying without success to persuade Riyadh to reverse an earlier decision to stick to a production schedule of relatively small, gradual increases. There is little expectation that the Saudis will change their mind when OPEC meets again on Dec. 2, according to senior officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive diplomacy.

The bottom line is that we need to deal with our dependence on fossil fuels. Yes, it's tough for people who need to drive long distances to work to have to pay higher gas prices. But those prices are still way lower than what Europeans pay, and pretty much don't complain about. Instead of whining, they buy smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. I have NO sympathy for the Giant SUV/Enormous Unnecessary Pickup crowd.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/11/23/white-house-strategic-petroleum-reserve/