noth·ing·burg·er
/ˈnəTHiNGˌbərɡər/
noun INFORMAL•US
noun: nothing burger
1.) something that is or turns out to be insignificant or lacking in substance.
"another nothing burger of a debate"
50 MM barrels of oil from the SPR is nothing; it won't reduce the price of gasoline more than its already been lowered the past eight days and ultimately will cause the price of oil to spike upwards, negating the entire big bunch of hooey. Biden and his gang want Americans to believe they have our backs, in spite of OPEC saying no to pleas for more oil, Washington can indeed do something, even if its wrong. Oil was UP yesterday, after Biden's announcement, two bucks a barrel.
Trump authorized an SPR release in 2019; I am unclear if the release actually occurred. He also begged and threatened OPEC for lower oil prices numerous times, just like Biden has. You can google all that.
The beef with all this SPR stuff seems to be energy security and drawing down on our savings account for non-strategic reasons, like lowering the price of gasoline before Thanksgiving. I agree, that sucks. What REALLY sucks is that some oil from the SPR has actually been exported to Asia the past few months. Fox Business has another article out this morning about that very thing, including China as a destination.
America's real hydrocarbon savings account, our hope for any long term energy security, is short investment cycled, shale oil and shale gas. THATS the resource that needs to be managed prudently, with conservation and the prevention of waste in mind.
Instead we're exporting 1 billion barrels of HZ tight oil, and nearly 6 TCF of HZ tight gas, to foreign countries every year, most of which was extracted on credit/debt and most of which is being sold overseas below the cost of extraction and being able to pay that debt back. That's America's oil gone, forever, and the American consumer got NO benefit from it. What's the replacement cost on THAT exported stuff going to be about five years down the road? If having a hissy fit over SPR releases, but not exports, seems like a double standard, it is.
What is best for our country's oil and gas future has now become as divisive as everything else in our nation; one political party, oblivious to the probability of scarcity of a finite resource, believes in draining America first... for the sake of exports, using debt, the other political party loathes oil and gas and wants to leave it all in the ground, forever, also using debt as a means of substitution.
There is no middle ground now and speaking out against one or the other, or both, earns little but ridicule. You are either with us, or your not. But "us" needs to be what's best for our nations long term energy security.
“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.” Mark Twain