In order to fight the rise in gas costs, President Joe Biden has authorized the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the US petroleum reserve.
“Today, the President is announcing that the Department of Energy will make available releases of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices for Americans and address the mismatch between demand and supply as a result of the pandemic,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the White House, other countries including China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom were all intending to release oil from their reserves.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the average price of a gallon of gas in November was $3.38, the highest since 2013.
When Insider’s Andy Kiersz previously observed, as the economy improved and Americans began driving more, demand for gas in the United States climbed, while supply remained constrained due to decreasing US output and abroad oil exporters continually agreeing to only minor increases in production.
