Experts warn that it may take decades to replenish the emergency oil reserves depleted by Biden.
Experts Warn Refilling Strategic Oil Reserves Could Take Decades
After President Joe Biden emptied the country’s strategic oil reserves to the lowest level in 40 years, experts now warn a refill of the vast tanks could take decades and leave the country vulnerable.
Slow Process and Historic Withdrawal
“It would be a very slow process even if you had the money and the facilities were all in good shape,” John Shages, who used to oversee the oil reserves for the Energy Department,
Shages said the process of refilling the reserves “could take decades.”
Replenishment Efforts and Challenges
Biden announced an effort to replenish the supplies in December, but as the Washington Free Beacon reported in May, at the pace set by the Biden administration, it would take 40 years to reach the previous oil supply levels. The DOE
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in March the administration “will begin that process this year, but to refill the full amount is impossible.”
Granholm admitted that it would take years to return oil reserve levels to where they were before Biden entered office. In a new interview this week with CNN, the secretary said it is “definitely possible” her agency picks up the pace but that it won’t be fully replenished before the end of Biden’s term.
Concerns and Criticisms
The reserves are intended to prevent the United States from running out of oil in the case of disruptions or crises.
Among the recipients of Biden’s selloff of the oil reserves was a Chinese state-controlled gas company. The Energy Department announced it sold 950,000 barrels to Unipec, the trading entity of the government-owned China Petrochemical Corporation.
Criticism from Republicans
Republicans have criticized the White House’s failure to fill the reserves faster.
“DOE’s mismanagement of the SPR has undermined America’s energy security, leaving the nation more vulnerable to energy supply disruptions, and increasing the ability for OPEC and Russia to use energy as a geopolitical weapon,” congressional Republicans said in a May letter to the Government Accountability Office. They requested an audit of the reserves.
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