Washington Post: “The Biden administration on Tuesday said it was tapping U.S. oil reserves in an effort to combat high gasoline prices, the White House’s second move in a week to try to address rising energy costs at a time when millions of Americans are preparing to hit the road. The administration said the Department of Energy will release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — an emergency pool kept by the United States — in conjunction with similar actions by several other countries.

“The move comes as President Biden is under mounting pressure from Republicans over pump prices and as Americans are preparing for Thanksgiving travel. Some leading Democrats had called for the White House to take the action for weeks, but it could trigger a showdown with other major oil producing nations, which could allege the White House is attempting to improperly distort energy markets. While energy experts have consistently said such a release would do little to lower prices at the pump, the White House said the effort would be undertaken “in parallel” with similar efforts by China, India, Japan, South Korea and Britain. India, for instance, also announced it would release 5 millions barrels of oil from its strategic reserves.

“Last week, the White House called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether oil companies were improperly raising prices in a way that rips off consumers. The oil industry has denied any wrongdoing and said market forces are to blame for the elevated costs at the pump. The average price for a gallon of gas was $3.40 on Tuesday, down a penny from Monday, according to AAA. Costs are even higher in states such as Pennsylvania, California and Nevada. The average price is up two cents per gallon from one month ago but markedly higher than the $2.11 price per gallon one year ago. In November 2020, however, global demand plummeted during a deadly wave of the coronavirus pandemic.”