The White House announced today that the United States will release 1 million barrels of oil a day for the next six months from its strategic reserve. This will total about 180 million barrels in total. There is an estimated 715 million barrels of oil in the U.S. Strategic Reserve.

The President recognized the rising price of gas, he said: “At the start of this year, gas was about $3.30 a gallon.  Today, it’s over $4.20, an increase of nearly $1.  And now, a significant amount of Russian oil is not making it to market.  The President banned the import of Russian oil – which Republicans and Democrats in Congress called for and supported.”

He is planning to tackle this problem threefold: increasing domestic production, immediately relieving costs with the strategic release, and encouraging “green projects” to slowly wean the U.S. off of oil.

With regards to domestic production, he said: “[we are] calling on Congress to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing.”

He also urged the United States to truly become energy independent by: “calling on Congress to pass his plan to speed the transition to clean energy that is made in America.” What this means is a renewed drive to pass Green New Deal legislation to encourage non-fossil fuel-burning technology such as electric cars.

The White House also said: “the President will issue a directive, authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act to secure American production of critical materials to bolster our clean energy economy by reducing our reliance on China and other countries for the minerals and materials that will power our clean energy future.  Specifically, the DPA will be authorized to support the production and processing of minerals and materials used for large-capacity batteries–such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese—and the Department of Defense will implement this authority using strong environmental, labor, community, and tribal consultation standards.” This means that the United States will take measurable steps to bring manufacturing of “green fuels” back to the country.