Following Senator Hassan’s Push, Administration to Release More Oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve

WASHINGTON – Following Senator Maggie Hassan’s (D-NH) repeated calls, President Joe Biden today announced that he is releasing a significant additional amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help lower oil and gas prices for Americans. 

“Families are reeling from the impact of Putin’s war and supply chain challenges, and Granite Staters are paying the price at the pump. Today, I’m glad to see the administration again heed my calls and release more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created for times like this to help mitigate harm to the U.S. economy from disruptions to oil supplies, and we have an obligation to use it to protect our small businesses and to help American families,” said Senator Hassan. 

Senator Hassan continued, “This is one important step forward in addressing high oil and gas costs, but it cannot be the last. We need to hold Big Oil accountable for padding their pockets at the expense of American families and suspend the gas tax while we’re seeing sky-high prices at the pump. This is about creating solutions that can help families now while building an independent, clean energy economy so that we are not reliant on Big Oil or foreign countries.”

Senator Hassan has continually pressed for releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to high oil and gas costs, leading to the administration releasing oil in November, earlier in March, and now today. The announcement today is the largest release yet, with one million barrels set to be released each day for the next six months.   

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