The U.S. could be getting 900,000 barrels of oil a day if President Joe Biden hadn’t stopped the Keystone XL pipeline, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, says.
In a statement released Tuesday, Sen. Manchin criticized Biden’s decision to order a one-time release of 50 million barrels of oil from the nation’s petroleum reserve, instead of allowing more U.S. production.
The soaring prices at the pump in the U.S. are a “self-inflicted wound” caused by the Biden Administration’s “shortsighted energy policy” that lacks a “comprehensive all-of-the-above energy policy, Sen. Manchin said:
"Today's release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an important policy Band-Aid for rising gas prices but does not solve for the self-inflicted wound that shortsighted energy policy is having on our nation. With an energy transition underway across the country, it is critical that Washington does not jeopardize America's energy security in the near term and leave consumers vulnerable to rising prices. Historic inflation taxes and the lack of a comprehensive all-of-the-above energy policy pose a clear and present threat to American's economic and energy security that can no longer be ignored.”
Manchin goes on to call for President Biden to “reverse course” and allow the Keystone pipeline to be built, which he says can deliver up to 900,000 barrels of oil a day to the U.S.:
“I continue to call on President Biden to responsibly increase energy production here at home and to reverse course to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be built which would have provided our country with up to 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada, one of our closest allies.”
If the pipeline did deliver that much oil, it would it would a take a little under two months (56 days) to surpass Pres. Biden’s one-time release of 50 million – and keep going.
Americans shouldn’t be at the mercy of foreign actors, like OPEC+, but should be energy independent, Machin said, in closing:
“To be clear, this is about American energy independence and the fact that hard working Americans should not depend on foreign actors, like OPEC+, for our energy security and instead focus on the real challenges facing our country's future.”
As former Trump EPA transition member and the founder of JunkScience.com Steve Milloy notes, President Joe Biden's decision to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices is "less than three days of U.S. oil consumption," and will have "no meaningful impact on gas prices."