Courtney Statement on President Biden’s Release from Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Coordination with Five Other Countries to Lower Gas Prices for Americans Amid Global Price[...]

NORWICH, CT - Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) released the following statement this morning as President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the release of 50 million barrels of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)-a targeted effort to help ease supply-chain bottlenecks and surging demand, and to bring down oil prices that are spiking worldwide as the global economic recovery continues. The President's move to release crude oil from the SPR comes as America and the global economy were facing the highest oil prices experienced in seven years, and was made in concert with other major energy consuming nations including Japan, the U.K., South Korea, India, and China.

"When working families are paying more at the pump, especially around this time of year, it doesn't help them much to hear that the entire world is experiencing the same sort of price increases-they need results, and that's what the President is delivering today," said Congressman Courtney."This is a strong, decisive, and unprecedented move by President Biden to coordinate with other consumer countries in an effort to halt spiking gas prices. It sends a strong message to producer nations in OPEC and Russia-and to speculators looking to profit off of spiking prices-that as a group, consumer nations are not going to passively just take the price that's given to us. We're in a position to push back, and President Biden has rallied American allies, competitors, and other major consumers together to do so, including Japan, South Korea, the U.K., India, and even China. This is U.S. leadership in action, and it's going to mean tangible relief at the gas pump for a lot of families in our region."

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