"What is the government doing to lower gas prices?
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency suspended the requirement for pricier summer blends of gasoline. That allows for year-round sales of cheaper E15 gasoline, which contains a 15% ethanol blend. E15 is usually prohibited from June to September because of air quality concerns.
In late March, Biden also announced he was releasing a million barrels of oil a day from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next six months. According to the White House, the unprecedented withdrawal could lower gasoline prices between 10 to 35 cents a gallon.
But insiders say it probably wouldn't be much of a help in the long run.
"It will lower the oil price a little and encourage more demand," Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Texas oil company Pioneer Natural Resources, told The New York Times. "But it is still a Band-Aid on a significant shortfall of supply."
The White House continues to pressure US oil companies to increase drilling and production. Criticizing energy concerns for "sitting on" more than 12 million acres of federal land and 9,000 approved production permits, the administration would like companies to face fines if they leave wells leased from public lands unused.
There's the option of getting energy products from other sources. The US has been working at improving relations with Venezuela, which has been banned from selling oil to the US since 2018, and is negotiating another nuclear nonproliferation treaty with Iran, which would bring Iranian oil back onto the market."
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The Biden administration isn't sitting on its hands...but the U.S. Oil Companies are...