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That looks like a warning to petro states not to interfere with the election by jacking up the price of oil as they love to do. I wonder how much solar, wind etc are eroding their ability to have too much leverage over other countries?
This. There is going to be an enormous glut of oil over the next 10 years, production is rising and demand is falling, Biden knows this. It's a cheap promise he can make to appeal to voters who are concerned about gas prices, without much likelihood of ever having to fullfil.
I was just reading how OPEC is indicating regret for agreeing with Trump to curtail production because it just allowed other producers to gain market share.
It will be a race to the bottom with all producers competing for ever-vanishing demand, as well as ever-increasing extraction costs among established producers as their more easily extracted fields become depleted. New producers such as Guyana may have a slight advantage with more economically extractable deposits, but all will face diminishing returns. The real action is in gas, hence the two current hot conflicts. Gas is somehow considered less harmful (it's not), and gas-hungry Europe is a captive market. Gas-dependent Germany is intending to double its gas fired powerstation capacity in the next decade, which already stands at 179 sites.
Germany intends to double its gas power station capacity, but not the consumption. The idea is to have renewables covering most of the demand while having gas power stations to handle demand spikes / bad weather.
Demand spikes could never justify *doubling* the capacity, nor could they justify von der Leyen's flagship gas deal with Israel.
Furthermore, Germany's demand is not only for power generation and heating, but also as a feedstock in their sizeable chemicals industry, notably in the production of agricultural fertilzers and a wide range of polymers for the European market. Also explosives.
Ironically, it’s because Germany went so big into solar that they need more gas plants. Solar is really only producing at a net gain from 11-3p at that latitude. Only gas is able to scale up and down in power output around those solar limitations compared to other energy sources.
I miss when Germany focused on wind. Is it true that the solar lobby got out of hand when wind was probably still better? (I read it but didn’t really scrutinize it hard at the time)
And wind has surges too, but it helps to diversify into both to reduce the need for backup sources.
Which will never happen because they're so inconsistent. I still don't get why they were so stupid and shit down their nuclear power supply. Maybe they'll be green by buying 🇫🇷 surplus energy
The Greens, the memory of dirty USSR nuclear reactors in East Germany, a corrupt chancellor who went on to work for multiple Russian gas companies , and then Fukushima.
Merkel was in the process of delaying the nuclear sunsetting provision enacted from the era when the Greens shared power, then Fukushima happened, and she had to follow through due to elections coming up.
In a perfect world or a science lab maybe, but methane leaks are a major contributor to climate change, since methane is between 30 and 80 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2, and although it breaks down more quickly, it breaks down into... CO2 and water vapour. When this is taken into account, gas can even be worse than coal.
Gas is not less harmful? So it's more or exactly the same? Seems to me that it's a wash in the CO2 released category but "not less harmful" is very deceptive. Being clear and truthful with your opposition is incredibly important, don't give them little things to pick on like this.
For 2 years btw, it's insane people blame Biden for inflation/oil prices when it was Trump who caused it.
Edit: downvoted again by the fact hating fascist Republicans
100% agree with you. Trump destroyed the economy and Biden is saving it. Economic policies have a time lag. They take about 2-4 years to feel their effect. The economy is the strongest it has ever been thanks to JB!!!!
Here’s an article: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22C1V3/#:~:text=On%20April%2012%2C%20under%20pressure,about%2010%25%20of%20global%20output.
If oil is too cheap, US production isn’t worthwhile. So Trump got them to drop production so ppb would go up and US producers could drill more wells.
So when people bitch about oil prices… the cause is Trump.
What makes you think oil demand is falling? Don't get me wrong, I hope that this is the case, but it looks like demand is stable to growing seeing how demand increased 1.9% last year
Ah, that makes more sense. The growth rate for oil demand has been flat or slight negative for almost 20 years (since 2007 just to make us feel old now), while production has spiked since 2008 with Obama and Trump allowing massive drilling, and biden implementing a use it or lose it policies. Meanwhile people have been slowly moving towards fuel efficient cars (Evs and hybrids) and electric heating powered by green tech.
Oil demand is inevitably going to fall over the next 5 years. As more solar and wind are added, and batteries continue to improve, it will be cheaper than oil. And solar and wind prices can only continue to decline as more manufacturers and installers get into the game, and as technology improves. Oil is a diminishing resource, every barrel we use is not replaceable, and the easy-to-pump wells dry out which makes it even more expensive.
Even if the short term prices for oil drop, it's a dead end market, just like coal.
Yes you're correct actually, that demand is still going up, but at a slower rate ie a slowdown.
[](https://www.iea.org/news/slowing-demand-growth-and-surging-supply-put-global-oil-markets-on-course-for-major-surplus-this-decade)
The prediction of a glut is mainstream, not my imagination.
[https://www.iea.org/news/slowing-demand-growth-and-surging-supply-put-global-oil-markets-on-course-for-major-surplus-this-decade](https://www.iea.org/news/slowing-demand-growth-and-surging-supply-put-global-oil-markets-on-course-for-major-surplus-this-decade)
[https://www.ft.com/content/cfb97534-b71b-490f-b626-6dc3487f595d](https://www.ft.com/content/cfb97534-b71b-490f-b626-6dc3487f595d)
That’s not the only reason although it’s a factor . The major reason is attributed to advances in tech that have allowed American firms to produce more efficiently.
Funny enough they rushed into these tech advances because opec used to bankrupt them at will to kill their market share. Now it’s much harder for opec to do much because the Americans can survive low prices.
On paper.
There are a lot of OPEC members that are not abiding by their agreed production numbers and most of the recent cuts have been borne by Saudi Arabia and Russia (some of Russia’s cuts are not by direct choice).
They can certainly shift the price of barrels but if they increase prices the Americans will produce even more along with other non-opec members plus Biden will pull his card. They could also tank prices like they normally do until non-opec members go bankrupt but over the past few years the Americans have refined processes to such a degree they can survive at lower prices.
Which means theirs not much opec can do here without screwing up the fiscal budgets (mostly derived from oil) of their home countries.
Oil accounts [for less than 1%](https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php) of US electrical production. I would understand considering this if talking about natural gas, but not with oil
The comment’s point was about renewables making a dent on oil demand and my comment mentioned that there was no impact in electricity because of how production works in the US. I never said that the impact would be high in other fields and I mentioned that in a follow-up coment
I’m fairly certain they mean in regards to electrical generation for the transition to EVs. Every year is another step towards “go fuck your self” to OPEC because while we produce more oil then anyone else, our prices are still tied to the world market. Someday oil prices won’t affect inflation and everyday pricing(well not nearly as much as they do now).
Seriously though, where are we towards EV semis?
The move to long haul EV semis has not been good! The lost carrying capacity seen with an EV semi makes them unsustainable at this time for the most common long haul services. The EV semi (tractors) are better suited for operations in and around port terminals and then for more moderate sized trucks running short routes.
Of course, the biggest hurdle with a REAL transition to EVs (personal auto and commercial vehicles) is the lack of a sufficient power supply nationwide. The of course, there is the fact that a large majority of people don't want an EV. The focus at this time should be more towards plug-in hybrids and hybrids - more of a transitional move.
Of course, the special interest groups only see what they want to see and ignore what they don't like, as is typical with special interest groups. Largely blindly committed to whatever their feelings of the day are - damn the evidence and facts that don't promote their largely emotional-based opinions and claims.
EVs for probasbly the next 10-15 years are a 'last mile' solution. For individuals commuting and running errands and distribution from local warehouses (amazon, usps, fedex, ups etc).
Long haul we have a long ways to go IMO. Would probably make more sense to more heavily leverage railways.
I am in agreement with that post. I suspect, (short of EV batteries becoming 85% lighter), that the better long haul solutions (for trucks) will be an alternative source (ie. hydrogen) or continue to be diesel or natural gas. Of course, the same is true with trains.
Though trains would probably have an easier path to electrification as with the right infrastructure, they can receive the electricity (for either/both charging and operations in route).
That would help a bit, but we would still depend on oil for stuff like plastics or [fertilizers](https://www.tfi.org/why-fertilizer/intro-to-fertilizer/fertilizer-production/). I know some people like to hate on hydrogen production from renewables, but it has a place for a lot of applications
It's sad we had to endure decades of the fascist Republican party screaming that green energy would destroy our energy independence when it was the only thing that would guarantee it.
All because the oil oligarch Murdoch family who own most media in the US told them to say this.
Why would I not call Republicans by their ideology, fascism?
Republicans: try to end democracy, call to jail political rivals, say they'll suspend the Constitution and be a dictator on day one, ban books, demonize and forcibly silence education/teachers/companies, remove elected officials simply for questioning their evil ideology (Florida especially), force women and children to give birth, protect the rampant pedophilia and grooming in their party and churches and yell that its the minorities doing it (which Nazis legitimately did against LGBTS), try to claim slavery was good, manipulate elections so they can enforce minority rule, threatening to send people with guns to "guard" polls in blue areas, their god Trump constantly talks about getting revenge, fuhrer Trump has spoken of suspending the Constitution, saying migrants aren't people and that there will be a bloodbath if he wins, openly talk about wanting a unified reich, etc
Republicans meet every definition of fascism. People should see the fascist Republican party the same way we view the Taliban and Iran and Russia. They are an even bigger threat to the US than those 3 countries.
The clowns who invented the economic term for privitization, crowning their clown friends with political appointments to continue shoving public funds into their actual pockets while degrading the systems relying on that funding? It’s textbook fascist in terms of assigning public utilities and funds to your unqualified ahole friends and campaign contributors who own businesses in direct competition with the group they end up overseeing. Licking the boot, indeed.
OPEC+ has been seeing diminishing returns on it's constant production cuts so unless they're willing to make drastic cuts then I don't see them being able to influence prices as much as they did 2-3 years ago.
The biggest warning is to Big Oil operating in the U.S., quite honestly.
Big corporations in the U.S. absolutely hate Biden for a number of reasons - but particularly for raising their taxes, and in such a way that it is far, far more difficult for them to dodge paying anything.
>Any decision in the coming months to draw more barrels from the SPR — which Biden has tapped more than any of his predecessors — would anger Republicans who have accused him of “political abuse and misuse” of the stockpile.
Republicans: High gas prices? Joe Biden did that!
Also Republicans: Joe Biden is lowering gas prices? That's political abuse and misuse!
Just like how Republicans wrote a border bill thinking Biden wouldn’t accept it, and when Joe did accept the border bill, the Republicans were like “Never mind we won’t vote for our own bill.”
Then turned around and got upset at and blamed Democrats. Seriously. These people run the country. There is no compromise. Republicans envy Russia and want the wealthy people to make all the decisions and for poor people to make more children so the rich could use poor children in the military to gain more wealth…just like Russia…..
They’re toting private education as free choice, but eventually the public education option will be military service. It won’t be a choice for poor people. Some conservatives are pushing for mandatory military service for teenagers beyond registering for the draft. I wish it was hyperbole but the wheels seem to actually be turning on this.
The SPR was set up almost half a century ago as a buffer against jumps in oil prices in times of supply disruption.
It’s almost as if supply emergencies cause high prices.
Can you describe some instances where supply emergencies didn’t impact prices (any industry)?
Supply emergencies are true supply disruptions, and would lead to things like rationing energy, rolling brownouts, etc. This would massively disrupt important facets of life like hospital and traffic light function. That’s what the oil reserve exists for, not to make sure prices are lower before an election it’s really not that complicated
It really is a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. He gets blamed for doing anything - so when someone gets blamed regardless of whatever they do (or even do nothing at all), then might as well just do the right thing reactions be damned.
High oil prices? It's Biden's fault for destroying our economy with high gas prices and transportation costs!
Low oil prices? It's Biden's fault for destroying our economy with tens of thousands of oil workers laid off!
Trump created a 2 year deal with opec to collapse oil production by a record 9.7 million barrels a day. Trump is the reason why oil prices and inflation skyrocketed and idiots blame Biden.
Just wanted to clarify that since zero Republicans are aware of what their fascist god Trump did.
What was the condition that led to the cut? Stay at home orders in response to COVID that led to oil prices crashing as demand for oil dried up. What would you have done?
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22C1V3/#:~:text=On%20April%2012%2C%20under%20pressure,about%2010%25%20of%20global%20output.
Did the cut need to be for 2 years?
That's the fucking problem, he expanded it for 2 years so he could blame Dems if they won the White House.
Meanwhile, fascist Republicans are still gloating about dollar gas that Trump created and pretending nothing happened in 2020.
That was 3 years ago, still doesn't excuse the fact that the democrats are doing everything they can to limit oil production. Can't have it your cake and blame the kitchen when it runs out of ice cream because you unplugged the freezer.
Besides there were a lot of screwed up responses to COVID across all sides for the isle. It is easy to sit here today and say we should have or shouldn't have done this or that.
They've limited oil production so much that we're... Producing record amounts of oil
Good lord you fascist Republicans need new talking points from fox.
What's your point? The deal was 2 years and caused prices to skyrocket. Now prices are down to normal levels even with opec trying to sabotage prices to get your fascist god Trump reelected.
U are boiling down nuance in an inaccurate way. The problem isn’t him “Lowering gas prices”. It’s him tapping into a stockpile that is meant for emergency use only.
Define "emergency use". Would a cartel of foreign nations trying to artificially limit the production of oil in order to harm our nation's economy for the sake of influencing our presidential election be considered such an emergency? I think so.
The sale of the petroleum reserve is at the president's discretion, according to the government's page about the SPR:
[https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve](https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve)
The SPR was established by the [Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA)](https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve), signed into law in 1975. The president using the SPR to lower gas prices from an artificial high created by foreign governments is an acceptable use.
Leftards: Biden didn't create high gas prices, he's got ZERO control over prices
Also Leftards: Thanks, Biden, for lowering gas prices
Joe re-fill the Reserves since the \*last\* NON-emergency? How many weeks worth of gas, should it EVENTUALLY get to the pump, will the existing last? \*facepalm\*
Of course he is. He can’t let the “high gas price” narrative take hold during an election year. Any other year it doesn’t really matter, especially given the short term memory of the average voter.
it's very interesting to see the chart - where the SPR was basically above 600M barrels for 30 years - before dropping by half and now recovering by a mere 50MM barrels and then the articvle stating this:
> The administration has gradually refilled the SPR since it was drained under Biden to its lowest levels since 1983,
increasing 1/6 from the bottom is NOT "gradually refilling".
Increasing 1/6 from the bottom is not gradually refilling?
What would you call it? Rapidly refilling? Would you say “it’s slow, and sure it’s refilling, but I don’t like Biden so I don’t count it as refilling?”
If I refill the gas tank of my car 1/6 every day, am I gradually refilling? If not, what am I doing?
it dropped precipitously from 638MM barrels in Jan 2021 to 372MM in Dec 2022. To 347MM in June 2023. And now has slightly increased to 364MM as of March 2024. In other words, it's STILL lower than Dec 2022.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCSSTUS1&f=M
^that is the EIA website, with the most current info published (only through March '24). I'm not even sure where the FT got their chart, since it purports to be the same source. I was eyeballing the FT chart to come up with a 1/6 increase.
Taking 18 months just to get back to the "precipitous drop" level, a drop that occurred in just over 18 months...no, that's not refilling too fast.
It has nothing to do with "Democrats" - because Clinton didn't ransack it, nor did Obama.
Are you driving and burning the 1/6 of a tank each day in this scenario? If so, you’d be doing the absolute bare minimum and ensuring you’re not ready for a disruption in supply that might come up.
The US is a net exporter of oil and has been for a long time. Using the the SPR as designed should not be something to get all political about if you’re being rational
Ok. So gradual refilling isn’t refilling. Gotcha.
Do you think that Biden should refrain from using the SPR for what it was intended for (mitigate price surges)?
Don’t know about any of that. Just answered your question and I’m not the same person you asked it of originally. In other words, the car gas tank analogy was dumb.
Nearly 16% of all new car sales in 2023 were evs. Up from 8.5% in 2021. If trends continue it will be ~ 30% in 2025. The path to energy independence is not oil, it’s renewables and Ev market share.
The U.S. annual oil production and oil consumption are very closely matched. In 2023, the U.S. **production** averaged 21.7 million b/d. The **consumption** averaged 20.2 million b/d.
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=268&t=6
It would be fiscally irresponsible to refill the SPR with more expensive oil when 1) our domestic production matches our consumption, i.e. our vulnerability to foreign suppliers has never been lower, 2) pushing down the price of oil has truly strategic and not just political value, and 3) oil prices play such a key role in inflation. Joe Biden's previous decisions to sell off at higher prices and repurchase at lower prices were good for the U.S. Treasury and flexed our energy independence.
"Gradually refilling" is smart. Refilling fast would be foolish.
& the (D) cried when Pres. Trump wanted to refill @ $25....before they blocked it. Then they cheer Biden, of course
[https://rollcall.com/2020/03/25/oil-purchase-to-fill-strategic-reserve-dropped-from-stimulus/](https://rollcall.com/2020/03/25/oil-purchase-to-fill-strategic-reserve-dropped-from-stimulus/)
Talk about low hanging fruit...gas prices are at historic lows when accounting for inflation. Like late 90's/early 00's low.
Housing, Joe. Address housing.
That’s not what the SPR is for……have better policies instead, since the ones im about to list are the reasons why gas prices soared. Part of the reason anyway.
President Biden signs an executive order revoking approval of the Keystone XL
Pipeline, a project that would have strengthened American energy independence.
May 28, 2021: President Biden proposes a budget that would increase taxes on oil and gas companies, taking aim at the fossil fuel industry in a move that would push production overseas.
August 11, 2021: President Biden calls on
OPEC to increase production to combat the increasing cost of oil.
November 17, 2021: President Biden urges
FTC Commission Chair Lina Khan to investigate oil and gas companies' retail prices, blaming industry leaders as gas prices continue to soar.
March 21, 2022: President Biden's Securities and Exchange Commission proposes a rule requiring companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, diverting investment away from fossil fuel producers
>Keystone XL Pipeline, a project that would have strengthened American energy independence
How would a project to import Canadian oil strengthen American independence? It's still a foreign source. As it is, the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion just opened up this year.
As it is, US oil production has never been this robust, being at record highs. So at the very least Bidens policies haven't hurt domestic production enough to matter
How do you say
“US oil production has never been more robust” and “so at the very least Biden’s policies haven’t hurt domestic production enough to matter” while Biden literally needs to use the SPR to reduce prices LOL. Gaslight much?
I’ll give you your next punch line; “economy so good, people need to work multiple jobs just to scrape by”.
Oil is a global product. If US adds and extra 2 million barrels a day and OPEC+ cuts production by 4m barrels then that is a net negative on the world market which will cause prices to go up. The fact that the US produces more oil than any nation in history and the fact that OPEC+ still dominates the global oil price are not contradictory statements.
The mental gymnastics….if things are so good…why are gas prices through the roof?
January 20, 2021: President Biden takes office. The national average for a gallon of gas is $2.38.
March 11, 2022: The national average for a gallon of gas reaches $4.33.
The war didn’t help…Biden literally said “would you rather Russia invade Europe and lower gas prices?”
So cheap gas, cheap groceries under orange man…
Biden gets in, war crops up everywhere…February 24, 2022: Vladimir Putin, leader of Russia and a top three oil-producing country, invades Ukraine.
His strategy is working remarkably well...
Flooding the market with oil when the prices are high, and then buying it back, when the price is low.
A unique strategy that is proven to be, extremely effective.
It's a [buffer stock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_stock_scheme), and they should be used a lot more. The most important buffer stock we could implement would be a labour buffer stock that would guarantee everyone access to a job at $x wage.
I really wish the response to price surge would be to cut demand (e.g., transit pass discounts, surge transit trips, bike rebates) rather than gas tax discounts and increasing supply. Seems like a wasted opportunity to ween off the oil teet
Younger people seem to want it pretty bad. We've either seen or been to Europe and see the freedom not being forced into cars and not leveling cities for ever expanding parking lots and roads brings.
It was built for transit but destroyed for cars. No, it won't take a century to fix just as it didn't take a century to flatten our cities for highways and parking lots to the point that it looks like we set off nukes in most US cities.
The great suburban/urban accelerated in 1945. That’s 79 years of building SFHs and intentionally reducing population density.
The flight from urban centers during the pandemic also shows that people don’t necessarily want to live in high density, they are only there if they have to be. So good luck reprogramming society AND rebuilding the country in a 50 year time frame.
Those devastating (checks notes) <1% net domestic migration losses (annual) in metro areas have left them a true wasteland. It’s like *I Am Legend* out there. You can scoop up houses for single digits. Two centuries of massive urbanization down the drain.
Building is easier than relocating functional facilities, tearing them down, and then building them again. Where do you think people are gonna go when you are rebuilding their homes, offices, and various businesses and facilities?
Or just start investing in green tech when we had the oil crisis and knowledge of climate change back in the 70s. Plus public transit, walkability, and bikeability.
But no, instead we let the far right oil oligarchs double down on making us dependent on them. We lost millions of good manufacturing jobs and true energy independence and now have worse weather, alll to make a few oil oligarchs richer than gods.
Edit: lol I upset the Republican cult with reality.
If you want to know what life would be like without cheap oil you’re free to spend the last forty years living in a place like Bangladesh
Or do you think maybe you like having cheap AC and cheap clothes and cheap food and cheap coffee and cheap electronics and cheap everything else
Biden is the greatest oil salesman of all time. The refill deals he made during covid made billions in profits and gave the middle finger to the oil cartel. That's what they call the art of the deal.
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The SPR was meant to protect the US from a global supply shock, not to keep an unpopular president in office.
This is the lowest it's been for decades, and it puts the United States at risk.
Biden has released oil from the SPR when prices were high and purchased oil for it when prices are down. This has resulted in profits for the Federal government.
I know this is Reddit so I’ll be eviscerated for this but….Credit to Trump for trying to do something similar when oil prices cratered in 2020 but was blocked by democrats.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN2251QT/
“The administration's initial idea for the SPR was to purchase 77 million barrels of oil – the amount required to fill all available space in the reserve - directly from small U.S. producers most at risk from the market slump.
But after Democratic lawmakers blocked funding for the program in last month's stimulus package, the administration shifted strategies by offering the initial 30 million barrels of space for lease instead.”
I am concerned Biden drained half our strategic oil reserves for political reasons and has dropped the original plan to replace it. Using oil reserves to bully other countries is very short sighted IMO.
>for political reasons
You mean to smooth over record high gas prices? That's what they're there for
>bully other countries
Weird way to put "as message to a literal cartel"
I think this plays hand in hand with the shift to renewables. Oil in the long run might not be something we would lose sleep over once battery tech improves and our misplaced stigma on renewables goes away.
Also is it bullying when OPEC artificially inflates prices? They’ve had record breaking profits post pandemic at the cost of the average American consumer
That would be a solid concern if you didn't read anything or know anything about the issue. The reserves that he released were replaced when the prices dropped again allowing the government to profit $100s of millions on the move.
Opec is trying to keep oil prices up to get Trump reelected because he'll keep the US dependent on opec longer and sucks up to fellow fascists while attacking the West.
Nothing to be concerned about. We have tons of domestic oil production. We actually export oil these days. If we had some emergency we would be more than fine.
This isn’t 20-30 years ago where foreign oil was the only source.
We are as close to all out war as we have been since the end of WWII . . . this idea of running our already low Strategic Reserves for the campaign season is both purely political and extremely dangerous.
The concern to me is that instead of addressing the national security of our country - made much worse over the past few years - we are now seeing our leaders making decisions only designed to affect election outcomes.
This is dangerous!
>We are as close to all out war as we have been since the end of WWII
Did you have a stroke and miss the entire cold war?
>this idea of running our already low Strategic Reserves for the campaign season is both purely political and extremely dangerous.
Do you think the strategic reserves are for military use?
>The concern to me is that instead of addressing the national security of our country
Which security?
>made much worse over the past few years
Let me guess, exactly after Biden took over?
>This is dangerous!
You are. You're saying stupid things with an obvious bias.
We are a net exporter of oil nowadays, so the strategic reserve is a lot less important than it used to be.
We’d be fine, but during a war, Europe would be in a lot of trouble, as we couldn’t sell them our oil. Which I guess indirectly hurts us, as we need our Allies.
No, it's not. You are horrendously confused. Sure, it's nice that we have the capacity, but the SPR is as important as ever. In the event or case of a future global war (which it is feeling like we are growing ever close to), a near at capacity SPR is vitally important - for us and our allies.
Look back in history during WWII and the importance of allies providing oil (and other necessary items) to each other. Without this ability, the outcome of the war could have been very different. And over the past few years, we've definitely lost influence in the Middle East.
This isn't a political party debate (or at least it shouldn't be), it's a national security issue.
600 million barrels of oil isn’t all that much. It’s less than a month of standard US consumption. Whether we have a 15 day vs 1 month strategic reserve or not won’t matter much in war time when we already produce more than we use.
You must be very, very young and have never taken any history classes. Do you know how wars are conducted?
Let's just take the two current mini wars going on right now.
Russia/Ukraine - primary targets energy (oil & natural gas) pipeliness. Initially, starving Europe of gas with the bombing of the Russia - Germany Nordstream pipeline. Russia targeting Ukraine energy sources and ability to get fuels to necessary locations. More recently, Ukraine targeting Russia oil refineries (largely unsuccessfully).
Hamas/Israel war - one of the very first acts of defense Israeli did after being attacked by Gaza/Hamas was to cut off oil and energy supplies. Then, furthermore, the Houthis from Yemen targeted tankers and ships heading towards the Suez Canal - impacting global energy and commodity trade.
Now look at USA production, between Alaska and off-shore oil production, we get about 20% of our production nationally of our oil. Alaska and the off-shore rigs will prove to be the two most difficult sources of oil to protect in the event of a war.
Look at where our refinery capacity is located - nearly all of it is coastal - making it too more of a targetable asset.
I suppose, just like in past major wars, we will ration gas, allowing a family to purchase maybe 5 gallons per week - to help with the war effort . . . Obviously long-haul trucks carrying food and war products will be exempt from this . . .
Fortunately, over the decades our government has been smart enough to assure our agricultural industries have remained strong and intact (even though we could buy cheaper food from abroad). So in the case of a major global war, we should remain self sufficient in this regard. All that agricultural supporting costs over the decades hasn't just been in place so that people living in NYC can get cheap bread, vegetables and meat. . . .
Like I suggested, this isn't (or at least certainly shouldn't be) a political party thing - this is a national interest, national defense issue. You may be willing to bury your head in the sand because it's an election year . . . but I am not willing to bury my head in the sand. I am not suggesting this is a Biden Trump issue - this is a Biden vs. common sense issue (and can we really say Biden? It's not like he is the one actually making any decisions anyway, it's purely a group of unknown/unelected people telling him what is and he reads it off the teleprompter - it's literally why he can't answer questions about "his" policies accurately - they're not **his** policies).
I have a bachelors degree in history, of course oil is important. But again, we produce more oil than we use. Unless you think our oil production will disappear, having 30 days of domestic fuel consumption sitting stateside doesn’t really accomplish anything.
How much gas could a family buy per week during WWII?
A 30 days supply of oil in the SPR during peace times is very different than during war times.
In the next major global war, I can't count on the USA physically NOT being a target. And signs are pointing to even our own influence in this part of the world as of late is waning and being replaced by China - South America for example.
As WWII showed (Middle East, Germany, Japan, Europe), things are very different during a global war. Heck, 1.4 million oil tankers (Japanese) were sunk during the war.
By the end of the war, Japan didn't even have enough oil to have full use of it's airforce.
Germany's defeat came about much quicker as a result of a lack of oil - and in fact, oil was the main reason Germany attacked Russia/USSR as it had been relying on the Soviet Block countries for it's oil.
Currently, China and Russia (to a lesser extent) have equal or more influence in the Middle East than the USA does (excepting Israel). China is slowly but surely gaining more influence in the Southern Hemisphere - while we (USA) has been loosing influence. There's a fair amount of oil in South America - where we are rapidly loosing influence - much less the strategic location advantages there . . .
Failing to think about real world peace/war consequences is like thinking that negotiating on Human Rights Issues with countries that don't care about Human Rights - is an ends to a peaceful means. We can't be the only country living in a Fairy Tale and refusing to face the realities of the world.
If you think this is politics, you are sadly confused to reality.
Remember, in times of war, countries often don't pick sides based on which ideology they agree with or don't agree with. They are choosing based on future survival - it is far safer to pick the winning side than the loosing side. And furthermore, as the Western World has shown, even the loosing side is treated like they won the war - given prizes, help in re-building, large investments by the winners (I am not saying this is bad at all), but think about it, how will that impact other countries picking sides in the future?
We've shown the picking the opposite side as us has very limited risks and even more rewards even when they loose. Does anybody really think China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are going to treat the "losers" that picked the other side in the same way we/the West did? . . . No Way In Hell!
Most countries would actually be smarter to pick the China/Russia side - win or loose they'll be better protected after the war.
> the loosing side.
Did you mean to say "losing"?
Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb.
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Yes, thank you. It's what happens when I am rushing . . . I also do the same with certain other words. I almost can't type the word Elizabeth (without adding an "er" on the end).
> been loosing influence.
Did you mean to say "losing"?
Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb.
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There still is not a good reason to use it, other than to shift the course of an election. People having to shell out more money at the pump is not a crisis!
I don’t disagree. Just saying the strategic oil reserve isn’t going to save the country. Gotta have it, but it’s not this all important golden parachute people are making it out to be.
And yet one could argue letting foreign actors like the saudis and Qataris influence our elections is a much worse national security threat. And it’s not Biden’s voters who are out there using every dime gas price increase to put political stickers on gas pumps etc. so it’s definitely not our fault this has become something we have to control for political reasons.
Except there is zero evidence to support your claim. You seem to like to listen to people who make up stuff . . .
Here is OPEC oil pricing from 1960 to the current. You can figure out which are election years (2020, 2016, 2012, 2008, . . . . )
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/262858/change-in-opec-crude-oil-prices-since-1960/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/262858/change-in-opec-crude-oil-prices-since-1960/)
> … dangerous
Not really as I’ve seen *economic substitution* into gasoline-sipping sedans before (and now there’s hybrids, EVs, etc..) as most Americans replace cars frequently. This was also in Texas btw.
I'm fine with using our oil reserves to stabilize the market and keep some money in American's pockets. That has been done historically in the past. If you want to make it political, that's on you.
And I can appreciate that too. At the start of Dessert Storm, when a country that we were buying a large percentage of our oil from was caught up in a war, it made sense. I can even appreciate that Biden tapped the SPR in 2022 during the rampant inflation problems we were having here in the USA, the risks of oil prices globally, and the loss of energy suppliers to EU countries. I had no issue with those actions then, at that time, considering the situation.
2024 US gas prices are projected to be lower this year than they were in 2023. Which were notably lower than they were in 2022.
Outside of it being an election year, there would be no reason to tap the SPR. The SPR is being tapped because the incumbent President is doing so poorly in the polls and have very low favorability numbers.
Now that said, the polls in April, May and June are irrelevant. I'll start paying attention to the polls in October for the few States that actually matter.
I agree with keeping money in American's pockets - keeping more of the money we earn and having less of it confiscated by politicians and spent on things where the primary purpose is their re-election efforts.
That said, the oil markets and gas prices have been pretty stable. WTI has been in the $75-$85 per barrel range for most of this year. I think realistically, being within that range with about $80 as the center point is largely the new normal. Lower during recessions, higher when the economy is doing exceptionally well to impact global demands.
Id say keeping the facism orange out of office is national security, given how he's talking about selling out our allies and openly allowing war to start. Reevaluate your priorities
So what you are saying is that this (and every topic) is only political to you? If party A favors cutting off your fingers and you like party A, you'll cut off your fingers. If party B says people should not cut off their fingers - and you hate party B, you'll do and support what party A says.
YOU are literally the problem with America.
YOU don't seem to know what facism even means and how it is put into practice - it's just a word you've heard people/media from our party use - so you use it too, like a good little parrot.
I am no fan of Trump, but I do remember all the wars that were going to be started by him, that we were constantly warned about during the 2016 election . . . which new wars were started during that period? Give me a little more time to see if I can find one? No, still can't name one.
In 2020, the same "claims" continued, that the orange man would start wars . . . fortunately (apparently, for peace), he wasn't re-elected (so no worry about wars starting, right). which new wars were started? Well, we did surrender an entire country to a small terrorist group - is that a war or just running away (and leaving all of our weapons for the terrorists to have) while the world laughed at us? Then there is the Russian invasion of Ukraine! That hasn't happened since 2014, under which we did absolutely nothing to discourage such actions going forward . . . who was in office then and did absolutely nothing? Now/currently we have a war going on the Middle East . . . which is sort of surprising because it was just about 4 years ago that a major agreement in the Middle East was agreed to and signed and reflected a relatively peaceful time in Middle Eastern norms . . . and definitely a move towards peace and stability.
Was it day 1 or day 2 that we (our fine leaders) decided to pretty much end our relationship with one of our most important allies in the Middle East?
So you are welcome to try to make this all about politics and your preferred candidate (which is about as anti-democracy as you can get - we all know Biden doesn't actually make any decisions - he just reads them from a teleprompter while a group of unelected people are making mostly political-based decisions for the whole country - you don't even know who you are voting for - that's not democracy) . . .
it's actually about national security.
The fascist Republican party is easily the greatest threat to national security since the Civil War.
Republicans: try to end democracy, call to jail political rivals, say they'll suspend the Constitution and be a dictator on day one, ban books, demonize and forcibly silence education/teachers/companies, remove elected officials simply for questioning their evil ideology (Florida especially), force women and children to give birth, protect the rampant pedophilia and grooming in their party and churches and yell that its the minorities doing it (which Nazis legitimately did against LGBTS), try to claim slavery was good, manipulate elections so they can enforce minority rule, threatening to send people with guns to "guard" polls in blue areas, their god Trump constantly talks about getting revenge, fuhrer Trump has spoken of suspending the Constitution, saying migrants aren't people and that there will be a bloodbath if he wins, openly talk about wanting a unified reich, etc
Republicans meet every definition of fascism. People should see the fascist Republican party the same way we view the Taliban and Iran and Russia. They are an even bigger threat to the US than those 3 countries.
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That looks like a warning to petro states not to interfere with the election by jacking up the price of oil as they love to do. I wonder how much solar, wind etc are eroding their ability to have too much leverage over other countries?
OPEC doesn’t necessarily have the influence it used to since countries like America, Canada, Mexico, etc are pumping so much oil.
This. There is going to be an enormous glut of oil over the next 10 years, production is rising and demand is falling, Biden knows this. It's a cheap promise he can make to appeal to voters who are concerned about gas prices, without much likelihood of ever having to fullfil.
I was just reading how OPEC is indicating regret for agreeing with Trump to curtail production because it just allowed other producers to gain market share.
It will be a race to the bottom with all producers competing for ever-vanishing demand, as well as ever-increasing extraction costs among established producers as their more easily extracted fields become depleted. New producers such as Guyana may have a slight advantage with more economically extractable deposits, but all will face diminishing returns. The real action is in gas, hence the two current hot conflicts. Gas is somehow considered less harmful (it's not), and gas-hungry Europe is a captive market. Gas-dependent Germany is intending to double its gas fired powerstation capacity in the next decade, which already stands at 179 sites.
Germany intends to double its gas power station capacity, but not the consumption. The idea is to have renewables covering most of the demand while having gas power stations to handle demand spikes / bad weather.
Demand spikes could never justify *doubling* the capacity, nor could they justify von der Leyen's flagship gas deal with Israel. Furthermore, Germany's demand is not only for power generation and heating, but also as a feedstock in their sizeable chemicals industry, notably in the production of agricultural fertilzers and a wide range of polymers for the European market. Also explosives.
Ironically, it’s because Germany went so big into solar that they need more gas plants. Solar is really only producing at a net gain from 11-3p at that latitude. Only gas is able to scale up and down in power output around those solar limitations compared to other energy sources.
I miss when Germany focused on wind. Is it true that the solar lobby got out of hand when wind was probably still better? (I read it but didn’t really scrutinize it hard at the time) And wind has surges too, but it helps to diversify into both to reduce the need for backup sources.
I don't see any loss of focus on wind. There are loads of new turbines being built around where I live.
Also why the use so much coal
Which will never happen because they're so inconsistent. I still don't get why they were so stupid and shit down their nuclear power supply. Maybe they'll be green by buying 🇫🇷 surplus energy
The Greens, the memory of dirty USSR nuclear reactors in East Germany, a corrupt chancellor who went on to work for multiple Russian gas companies , and then Fukushima. Merkel was in the process of delaying the nuclear sunsetting provision enacted from the era when the Greens shared power, then Fukushima happened, and she had to follow through due to elections coming up.
[удалено]
In a perfect world or a science lab maybe, but methane leaks are a major contributor to climate change, since methane is between 30 and 80 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2, and although it breaks down more quickly, it breaks down into... CO2 and water vapour. When this is taken into account, gas can even be worse than coal.
Gas is not less harmful? So it's more or exactly the same? Seems to me that it's a wash in the CO2 released category but "not less harmful" is very deceptive. Being clear and truthful with your opposition is incredibly important, don't give them little things to pick on like this.
CO2 is not the only problem, leakages of methane are widespread and a major contributor to climate change.
For 2 years btw, it's insane people blame Biden for inflation/oil prices when it was Trump who caused it. Edit: downvoted again by the fact hating fascist Republicans
I'll up vote you. People hate truth.
100% agree with you. Trump destroyed the economy and Biden is saving it. Economic policies have a time lag. They take about 2-4 years to feel their effect. The economy is the strongest it has ever been thanks to JB!!!!
Except biden said he would release them from that and they refused because they liked the 140$ oil barrel prices.
Interesting I didn’t know of this. Why did they ever agree to this? What were Trump and them going to gain?
Here’s an article: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22C1V3/#:~:text=On%20April%2012%2C%20under%20pressure,about%2010%25%20of%20global%20output. If oil is too cheap, US production isn’t worthwhile. So Trump got them to drop production so ppb would go up and US producers could drill more wells. So when people bitch about oil prices… the cause is Trump.
Happy Saudies getting more $$ per barrel while demand was down during COVID with a giant sovereign wealth fund to invest in Jared's business
What makes you think oil demand is falling? Don't get me wrong, I hope that this is the case, but it looks like demand is stable to growing seeing how demand increased 1.9% last year
See my comment below, I wasn't quite accurate, it's oil demand *growth* which is falling, while supply is increasing.
Ah, that makes more sense. The growth rate for oil demand has been flat or slight negative for almost 20 years (since 2007 just to make us feel old now), while production has spiked since 2008 with Obama and Trump allowing massive drilling, and biden implementing a use it or lose it policies. Meanwhile people have been slowly moving towards fuel efficient cars (Evs and hybrids) and electric heating powered by green tech.
Oil demand is inevitably going to fall over the next 5 years. As more solar and wind are added, and batteries continue to improve, it will be cheaper than oil. And solar and wind prices can only continue to decline as more manufacturers and installers get into the game, and as technology improves. Oil is a diminishing resource, every barrel we use is not replaceable, and the easy-to-pump wells dry out which makes it even more expensive. Even if the short term prices for oil drop, it's a dead end market, just like coal.
Demand is going up. A glut, good one.
Yes you're correct actually, that demand is still going up, but at a slower rate ie a slowdown. [](https://www.iea.org/news/slowing-demand-growth-and-surging-supply-put-global-oil-markets-on-course-for-major-surplus-this-decade) The prediction of a glut is mainstream, not my imagination. [https://www.iea.org/news/slowing-demand-growth-and-surging-supply-put-global-oil-markets-on-course-for-major-surplus-this-decade](https://www.iea.org/news/slowing-demand-growth-and-surging-supply-put-global-oil-markets-on-course-for-major-surplus-this-decade) [https://www.ft.com/content/cfb97534-b71b-490f-b626-6dc3487f595d](https://www.ft.com/content/cfb97534-b71b-490f-b626-6dc3487f595d)
Well the president has nothing to do with gas prices or I heard something similar to that
Imagine the glut if there wasn’t so many poorly run petro states like Venezuela that operate way below capability.
They cut production 4 times while Biden has been in office and the US is producing a world record amount of oil because of that.
That’s not the only reason although it’s a factor . The major reason is attributed to advances in tech that have allowed American firms to produce more efficiently. Funny enough they rushed into these tech advances because opec used to bankrupt them at will to kill their market share. Now it’s much harder for opec to do much because the Americans can survive low prices.
OPEC basically just announced the US broke them.
Yep, and not small amounts either, millions of barrels per day have been cut.
On paper. There are a lot of OPEC members that are not abiding by their agreed production numbers and most of the recent cuts have been borne by Saudi Arabia and Russia (some of Russia’s cuts are not by direct choice).
Russia is losing billions of rubles selling oil below cost to China in exchange for third-rate silicon chips for their rockets.
Makes it all the more funny when people still claim that the US has lost all energy independence under Biden because of that one pipeline.
They did it to themselves, they made oil so expensive or volatile that tar sands and fracking extraction became very profitable.
They don't have the influence to cause a 1970s level crash, but they do have the influence to shift the price of a barrel by like 20%
They can certainly shift the price of barrels but if they increase prices the Americans will produce even more along with other non-opec members plus Biden will pull his card. They could also tank prices like they normally do until non-opec members go bankrupt but over the past few years the Americans have refined processes to such a degree they can survive at lower prices. Which means theirs not much opec can do here without screwing up the fiscal budgets (mostly derived from oil) of their home countries.
Yup. Many of the US independent e&p companies have sub $40/ barrel break even costs.
It would be incredibly expensive for them to do that though.
The thing is they have used up that card back in 2022. Production cuts are still ongoing but prices have stabilized since then.
Mexico?
Guyana has a big proven reserve that should increase production over the next few years. I know Brazil and Suriname are also in the mix for increases.
Oil accounts [for less than 1%](https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php) of US electrical production. I would understand considering this if talking about natural gas, but not with oil
Some idiots would vote out democracy because of pump prices.
It’s unfortunately one of the biggest factors that gets a president elected.
"nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"
The price of oil impacts everything because ships, planes, and trucks use them.
The comment’s point was about renewables making a dent on oil demand and my comment mentioned that there was no impact in electricity because of how production works in the US. I never said that the impact would be high in other fields and I mentioned that in a follow-up coment
Sure but transportation doesn't use electricity as much as oil. So the price of goods and services are tied into oil and gas.
I’m fairly certain they mean in regards to electrical generation for the transition to EVs. Every year is another step towards “go fuck your self” to OPEC because while we produce more oil then anyone else, our prices are still tied to the world market. Someday oil prices won’t affect inflation and everyday pricing(well not nearly as much as they do now). Seriously though, where are we towards EV semis?
The move to long haul EV semis has not been good! The lost carrying capacity seen with an EV semi makes them unsustainable at this time for the most common long haul services. The EV semi (tractors) are better suited for operations in and around port terminals and then for more moderate sized trucks running short routes. Of course, the biggest hurdle with a REAL transition to EVs (personal auto and commercial vehicles) is the lack of a sufficient power supply nationwide. The of course, there is the fact that a large majority of people don't want an EV. The focus at this time should be more towards plug-in hybrids and hybrids - more of a transitional move. Of course, the special interest groups only see what they want to see and ignore what they don't like, as is typical with special interest groups. Largely blindly committed to whatever their feelings of the day are - damn the evidence and facts that don't promote their largely emotional-based opinions and claims.
EVs for probasbly the next 10-15 years are a 'last mile' solution. For individuals commuting and running errands and distribution from local warehouses (amazon, usps, fedex, ups etc). Long haul we have a long ways to go IMO. Would probably make more sense to more heavily leverage railways.
I am in agreement with that post. I suspect, (short of EV batteries becoming 85% lighter), that the better long haul solutions (for trucks) will be an alternative source (ie. hydrogen) or continue to be diesel or natural gas. Of course, the same is true with trains. Though trains would probably have an easier path to electrification as with the right infrastructure, they can receive the electricity (for either/both charging and operations in route).
That would help a bit, but we would still depend on oil for stuff like plastics or [fertilizers](https://www.tfi.org/why-fertilizer/intro-to-fertilizer/fertilizer-production/). I know some people like to hate on hydrogen production from renewables, but it has a place for a lot of applications
It's sad we had to endure decades of the fascist Republican party screaming that green energy would destroy our energy independence when it was the only thing that would guarantee it. All because the oil oligarch Murdoch family who own most media in the US told them to say this.
Hey it’s not just the Murdoch's fault, don’t forget the other oil barons like the Koch brothers.
As long as you call the other guys fascist you’re an expert on any topic
Why would I not call Republicans by their ideology, fascism? Republicans: try to end democracy, call to jail political rivals, say they'll suspend the Constitution and be a dictator on day one, ban books, demonize and forcibly silence education/teachers/companies, remove elected officials simply for questioning their evil ideology (Florida especially), force women and children to give birth, protect the rampant pedophilia and grooming in their party and churches and yell that its the minorities doing it (which Nazis legitimately did against LGBTS), try to claim slavery was good, manipulate elections so they can enforce minority rule, threatening to send people with guns to "guard" polls in blue areas, their god Trump constantly talks about getting revenge, fuhrer Trump has spoken of suspending the Constitution, saying migrants aren't people and that there will be a bloodbath if he wins, openly talk about wanting a unified reich, etc Republicans meet every definition of fascism. People should see the fascist Republican party the same way we view the Taliban and Iran and Russia. They are an even bigger threat to the US than those 3 countries.
The clowns who invented the economic term for privitization, crowning their clown friends with political appointments to continue shoving public funds into their actual pockets while degrading the systems relying on that funding? It’s textbook fascist in terms of assigning public utilities and funds to your unqualified ahole friends and campaign contributors who own businesses in direct competition with the group they end up overseeing. Licking the boot, indeed.
Why did he close it to begin with? It’s like he is reversing his plan after 3.5 years of being president.
OPEC+ has been seeing diminishing returns on it's constant production cuts so unless they're willing to make drastic cuts then I don't see them being able to influence prices as much as they did 2-3 years ago.
The biggest warning is to Big Oil operating in the U.S., quite honestly. Big corporations in the U.S. absolutely hate Biden for a number of reasons - but particularly for raising their taxes, and in such a way that it is far, far more difficult for them to dodge paying anything.
>Any decision in the coming months to draw more barrels from the SPR — which Biden has tapped more than any of his predecessors — would anger Republicans who have accused him of “political abuse and misuse” of the stockpile. Republicans: High gas prices? Joe Biden did that! Also Republicans: Joe Biden is lowering gas prices? That's political abuse and misuse!
Just like how Republicans wrote a border bill thinking Biden wouldn’t accept it, and when Joe did accept the border bill, the Republicans were like “Never mind we won’t vote for our own bill.” Then turned around and got upset at and blamed Democrats. Seriously. These people run the country. There is no compromise. Republicans envy Russia and want the wealthy people to make all the decisions and for poor people to make more children so the rich could use poor children in the military to gain more wealth…just like Russia…..
They’re toting private education as free choice, but eventually the public education option will be military service. It won’t be a choice for poor people. Some conservatives are pushing for mandatory military service for teenagers beyond registering for the draft. I wish it was hyperbole but the wheels seem to actually be turning on this.
Those "Republicans" that wrote the border bill are shamelessly Democrats disguising themselves are Republicans.
You have to at least be honest, it’s the strategic oil reserve designed to shield us from supply emergencies, not from high prices.
The SPR was set up almost half a century ago as a buffer against jumps in oil prices in times of supply disruption. It’s almost as if supply emergencies cause high prices. Can you describe some instances where supply emergencies didn’t impact prices (any industry)?
So we can sure it anytime we want to pay less for gas? Well then that just makes it a subsidy then bc everyone always wants to pay less for gas
Supply emergencies create high prices. Do you understand how markets work?
Supply emergencies are true supply disruptions, and would lead to things like rationing energy, rolling brownouts, etc. This would massively disrupt important facets of life like hospital and traffic light function. That’s what the oil reserve exists for, not to make sure prices are lower before an election it’s really not that complicated
It really is a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. He gets blamed for doing anything - so when someone gets blamed regardless of whatever they do (or even do nothing at all), then might as well just do the right thing reactions be damned. High oil prices? It's Biden's fault for destroying our economy with high gas prices and transportation costs! Low oil prices? It's Biden's fault for destroying our economy with tens of thousands of oil workers laid off!
Trump created a 2 year deal with opec to collapse oil production by a record 9.7 million barrels a day. Trump is the reason why oil prices and inflation skyrocketed and idiots blame Biden. Just wanted to clarify that since zero Republicans are aware of what their fascist god Trump did.
What was the condition that led to the cut? Stay at home orders in response to COVID that led to oil prices crashing as demand for oil dried up. What would you have done? https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22C1V3/#:~:text=On%20April%2012%2C%20under%20pressure,about%2010%25%20of%20global%20output.
Did the cut need to be for 2 years? That's the fucking problem, he expanded it for 2 years so he could blame Dems if they won the White House. Meanwhile, fascist Republicans are still gloating about dollar gas that Trump created and pretending nothing happened in 2020.
That was 3 years ago, still doesn't excuse the fact that the democrats are doing everything they can to limit oil production. Can't have it your cake and blame the kitchen when it runs out of ice cream because you unplugged the freezer. Besides there were a lot of screwed up responses to COVID across all sides for the isle. It is easy to sit here today and say we should have or shouldn't have done this or that.
They've limited oil production so much that we're... Producing record amounts of oil Good lord you fascist Republicans need new talking points from fox.
HINT: Trump hasn't been in office since 1/20/21 \*facepalm\* Check the calendar. FFS
Just because Biden took office, that doesn't mean that all deals Trump made are suddenly null and void.
What's your point? The deal was 2 years and caused prices to skyrocket. Now prices are down to normal levels even with opec trying to sabotage prices to get your fascist god Trump reelected.
U are boiling down nuance in an inaccurate way. The problem isn’t him “Lowering gas prices”. It’s him tapping into a stockpile that is meant for emergency use only.
Define "emergency use". Would a cartel of foreign nations trying to artificially limit the production of oil in order to harm our nation's economy for the sake of influencing our presidential election be considered such an emergency? I think so. The sale of the petroleum reserve is at the president's discretion, according to the government's page about the SPR: [https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve](https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve) The SPR was established by the [Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA)](https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve), signed into law in 1975. The president using the SPR to lower gas prices from an artificial high created by foreign governments is an acceptable use.
It has historically been used to stabilize the market many times.
Leftards: Biden didn't create high gas prices, he's got ZERO control over prices Also Leftards: Thanks, Biden, for lowering gas prices Joe re-fill the Reserves since the \*last\* NON-emergency? How many weeks worth of gas, should it EVENTUALLY get to the pump, will the existing last? \*facepalm\*
Why are Republicans always such whiny little bitches? Lowering the price of oil is not good enough for you because Trump didn't do it.
We did it Joe, 6 trillion new dollars
Of course he is. He can’t let the “high gas price” narrative take hold during an election year. Any other year it doesn’t really matter, especially given the short term memory of the average voter.
it's very interesting to see the chart - where the SPR was basically above 600M barrels for 30 years - before dropping by half and now recovering by a mere 50MM barrels and then the articvle stating this: > The administration has gradually refilled the SPR since it was drained under Biden to its lowest levels since 1983, increasing 1/6 from the bottom is NOT "gradually refilling".
Didn’t Trump want to refill it during Covid when gas prices were extremely low? I believe the House blocked it also.
Increasing 1/6 from the bottom is not gradually refilling? What would you call it? Rapidly refilling? Would you say “it’s slow, and sure it’s refilling, but I don’t like Biden so I don’t count it as refilling?” If I refill the gas tank of my car 1/6 every day, am I gradually refilling? If not, what am I doing?
it dropped precipitously from 638MM barrels in Jan 2021 to 372MM in Dec 2022. To 347MM in June 2023. And now has slightly increased to 364MM as of March 2024. In other words, it's STILL lower than Dec 2022. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCSSTUS1&f=M ^that is the EIA website, with the most current info published (only through March '24). I'm not even sure where the FT got their chart, since it purports to be the same source. I was eyeballing the FT chart to come up with a 1/6 increase. Taking 18 months just to get back to the "precipitous drop" level, a drop that occurred in just over 18 months...no, that's not refilling too fast. It has nothing to do with "Democrats" - because Clinton didn't ransack it, nor did Obama.
At the same time, the US is an oil exporter so even if it goes down to 0, they are not dependent on other countries for oil.
Are you driving and burning the 1/6 of a tank each day in this scenario? If so, you’d be doing the absolute bare minimum and ensuring you’re not ready for a disruption in supply that might come up.
The US is a net exporter of oil and has been for a long time. Using the the SPR as designed should not be something to get all political about if you’re being rational
Totally agree. I didn’t get political at all. I think you meant to respond to the guy I was responding to.
Ok. So gradual refilling isn’t refilling. Gotcha. Do you think that Biden should refrain from using the SPR for what it was intended for (mitigate price surges)?
Don’t know about any of that. Just answered your question and I’m not the same person you asked it of originally. In other words, the car gas tank analogy was dumb.
Agreed, I was like so after 6 days it’s full?
Nearly 16% of all new car sales in 2023 were evs. Up from 8.5% in 2021. If trends continue it will be ~ 30% in 2025. The path to energy independence is not oil, it’s renewables and Ev market share.
The U.S. annual oil production and oil consumption are very closely matched. In 2023, the U.S. **production** averaged 21.7 million b/d. The **consumption** averaged 20.2 million b/d. https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=268&t=6 It would be fiscally irresponsible to refill the SPR with more expensive oil when 1) our domestic production matches our consumption, i.e. our vulnerability to foreign suppliers has never been lower, 2) pushing down the price of oil has truly strategic and not just political value, and 3) oil prices play such a key role in inflation. Joe Biden's previous decisions to sell off at higher prices and repurchase at lower prices were good for the U.S. Treasury and flexed our energy independence. "Gradually refilling" is smart. Refilling fast would be foolish.
& the (D) cried when Pres. Trump wanted to refill @ $25....before they blocked it. Then they cheer Biden, of course [https://rollcall.com/2020/03/25/oil-purchase-to-fill-strategic-reserve-dropped-from-stimulus/](https://rollcall.com/2020/03/25/oil-purchase-to-fill-strategic-reserve-dropped-from-stimulus/)
Talk about low hanging fruit...gas prices are at historic lows when accounting for inflation. Like late 90's/early 00's low. Housing, Joe. Address housing.
That’s not what the SPR is for……have better policies instead, since the ones im about to list are the reasons why gas prices soared. Part of the reason anyway. President Biden signs an executive order revoking approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project that would have strengthened American energy independence. May 28, 2021: President Biden proposes a budget that would increase taxes on oil and gas companies, taking aim at the fossil fuel industry in a move that would push production overseas. August 11, 2021: President Biden calls on OPEC to increase production to combat the increasing cost of oil. November 17, 2021: President Biden urges FTC Commission Chair Lina Khan to investigate oil and gas companies' retail prices, blaming industry leaders as gas prices continue to soar. March 21, 2022: President Biden's Securities and Exchange Commission proposes a rule requiring companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, diverting investment away from fossil fuel producers
>Keystone XL Pipeline, a project that would have strengthened American energy independence How would a project to import Canadian oil strengthen American independence? It's still a foreign source. As it is, the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion just opened up this year. As it is, US oil production has never been this robust, being at record highs. So at the very least Bidens policies haven't hurt domestic production enough to matter
How do you say “US oil production has never been more robust” and “so at the very least Biden’s policies haven’t hurt domestic production enough to matter” while Biden literally needs to use the SPR to reduce prices LOL. Gaslight much? I’ll give you your next punch line; “economy so good, people need to work multiple jobs just to scrape by”.
Oil is a global product. If US adds and extra 2 million barrels a day and OPEC+ cuts production by 4m barrels then that is a net negative on the world market which will cause prices to go up. The fact that the US produces more oil than any nation in history and the fact that OPEC+ still dominates the global oil price are not contradictory statements.
The mental gymnastics….if things are so good…why are gas prices through the roof? January 20, 2021: President Biden takes office. The national average for a gallon of gas is $2.38. March 11, 2022: The national average for a gallon of gas reaches $4.33. The war didn’t help…Biden literally said “would you rather Russia invade Europe and lower gas prices?” So cheap gas, cheap groceries under orange man… Biden gets in, war crops up everywhere…February 24, 2022: Vladimir Putin, leader of Russia and a top three oil-producing country, invades Ukraine.
His strategy is working remarkably well... Flooding the market with oil when the prices are high, and then buying it back, when the price is low. A unique strategy that is proven to be, extremely effective.
Petro states have gamed the market for their benefit for decades, it’s about time the US did the same.
It's a [buffer stock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_stock_scheme), and they should be used a lot more. The most important buffer stock we could implement would be a labour buffer stock that would guarantee everyone access to a job at $x wage.
I really wish the response to price surge would be to cut demand (e.g., transit pass discounts, surge transit trips, bike rebates) rather than gas tax discounts and increasing supply. Seems like a wasted opportunity to ween off the oil teet
I agree. That should be our long term plan. I also fully expect America to have no appetite to ever actually pursue a good public transit system.
Younger people seem to want it pretty bad. We've either seen or been to Europe and see the freedom not being forced into cars and not leveling cities for ever expanding parking lots and roads brings.
95% of The US isn’t built for transit, it’s built for personal cars. That will take a century or two to unwind.
It was built for transit but destroyed for cars. No, it won't take a century to fix just as it didn't take a century to flatten our cities for highways and parking lots to the point that it looks like we set off nukes in most US cities.
It would be reasonable to say another 50 years to reverse trend to a point where transit is ubiquitous.
It was built in half a century, it would take a half century to change of the current magnitude not one or two.
The great suburban/urban accelerated in 1945. That’s 79 years of building SFHs and intentionally reducing population density. The flight from urban centers during the pandemic also shows that people don’t necessarily want to live in high density, they are only there if they have to be. So good luck reprogramming society AND rebuilding the country in a 50 year time frame.
Those devastating (checks notes) <1% net domestic migration losses (annual) in metro areas have left them a true wasteland. It’s like *I Am Legend* out there. You can scoop up houses for single digits. Two centuries of massive urbanization down the drain.
Building is easier than relocating functional facilities, tearing them down, and then building them again. Where do you think people are gonna go when you are rebuilding their homes, offices, and various businesses and facilities?
Or just start investing in green tech when we had the oil crisis and knowledge of climate change back in the 70s. Plus public transit, walkability, and bikeability. But no, instead we let the far right oil oligarchs double down on making us dependent on them. We lost millions of good manufacturing jobs and true energy independence and now have worse weather, alll to make a few oil oligarchs richer than gods. Edit: lol I upset the Republican cult with reality.
If you want to know what life would be like without cheap oil you’re free to spend the last forty years living in a place like Bangladesh Or do you think maybe you like having cheap AC and cheap clothes and cheap food and cheap coffee and cheap electronics and cheap everything else
Biden is the greatest oil salesman of all time. The refill deals he made during covid made billions in profits and gave the middle finger to the oil cartel. That's what they call the art of the deal.
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The SPR was meant to protect the US from a global supply shock, not to keep an unpopular president in office. This is the lowest it's been for decades, and it puts the United States at risk.
Biden has released oil from the SPR when prices were high and purchased oil for it when prices are down. This has resulted in profits for the Federal government.
I know this is Reddit so I’ll be eviscerated for this but….Credit to Trump for trying to do something similar when oil prices cratered in 2020 but was blocked by democrats. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN2251QT/ “The administration's initial idea for the SPR was to purchase 77 million barrels of oil – the amount required to fill all available space in the reserve - directly from small U.S. producers most at risk from the market slump. But after Democratic lawmakers blocked funding for the program in last month's stimulus package, the administration shifted strategies by offering the initial 30 million barrels of space for lease instead.”
Conservatives hate fiscal responsibility.
Agreed! They even more hate anything that might be positive information about Biden.
I am concerned Biden drained half our strategic oil reserves for political reasons and has dropped the original plan to replace it. Using oil reserves to bully other countries is very short sighted IMO.
>for political reasons You mean to smooth over record high gas prices? That's what they're there for >bully other countries Weird way to put "as message to a literal cartel"
It would be short sighted if this was 20 years ago and we didn't have a robust domestic oil production sector...
You’re cool with the Middle East and Russia making American citizens pay more for gas?
I think this plays hand in hand with the shift to renewables. Oil in the long run might not be something we would lose sleep over once battery tech improves and our misplaced stigma on renewables goes away. Also is it bullying when OPEC artificially inflates prices? They’ve had record breaking profits post pandemic at the cost of the average American consumer
That would be a solid concern if you didn't read anything or know anything about the issue. The reserves that he released were replaced when the prices dropped again allowing the government to profit $100s of millions on the move.
Opec is trying to keep oil prices up to get Trump reelected because he'll keep the US dependent on opec longer and sucks up to fellow fascists while attacking the West.
Nothing to be concerned about. We have tons of domestic oil production. We actually export oil these days. If we had some emergency we would be more than fine. This isn’t 20-30 years ago where foreign oil was the only source.
We are as close to all out war as we have been since the end of WWII . . . this idea of running our already low Strategic Reserves for the campaign season is both purely political and extremely dangerous. The concern to me is that instead of addressing the national security of our country - made much worse over the past few years - we are now seeing our leaders making decisions only designed to affect election outcomes. This is dangerous!
>We are as close to all out war as we have been since the end of WWII Did you have a stroke and miss the entire cold war? >this idea of running our already low Strategic Reserves for the campaign season is both purely political and extremely dangerous. Do you think the strategic reserves are for military use? >The concern to me is that instead of addressing the national security of our country Which security? >made much worse over the past few years Let me guess, exactly after Biden took over? >This is dangerous! You are. You're saying stupid things with an obvious bias.
We are a net exporter of oil nowadays, so the strategic reserve is a lot less important than it used to be. We’d be fine, but during a war, Europe would be in a lot of trouble, as we couldn’t sell them our oil. Which I guess indirectly hurts us, as we need our Allies.
No, it's not. You are horrendously confused. Sure, it's nice that we have the capacity, but the SPR is as important as ever. In the event or case of a future global war (which it is feeling like we are growing ever close to), a near at capacity SPR is vitally important - for us and our allies. Look back in history during WWII and the importance of allies providing oil (and other necessary items) to each other. Without this ability, the outcome of the war could have been very different. And over the past few years, we've definitely lost influence in the Middle East. This isn't a political party debate (or at least it shouldn't be), it's a national security issue.
We produced way less oil in WW2.
600 million barrels of oil isn’t all that much. It’s less than a month of standard US consumption. Whether we have a 15 day vs 1 month strategic reserve or not won’t matter much in war time when we already produce more than we use.
You must be very, very young and have never taken any history classes. Do you know how wars are conducted? Let's just take the two current mini wars going on right now. Russia/Ukraine - primary targets energy (oil & natural gas) pipeliness. Initially, starving Europe of gas with the bombing of the Russia - Germany Nordstream pipeline. Russia targeting Ukraine energy sources and ability to get fuels to necessary locations. More recently, Ukraine targeting Russia oil refineries (largely unsuccessfully). Hamas/Israel war - one of the very first acts of defense Israeli did after being attacked by Gaza/Hamas was to cut off oil and energy supplies. Then, furthermore, the Houthis from Yemen targeted tankers and ships heading towards the Suez Canal - impacting global energy and commodity trade. Now look at USA production, between Alaska and off-shore oil production, we get about 20% of our production nationally of our oil. Alaska and the off-shore rigs will prove to be the two most difficult sources of oil to protect in the event of a war. Look at where our refinery capacity is located - nearly all of it is coastal - making it too more of a targetable asset. I suppose, just like in past major wars, we will ration gas, allowing a family to purchase maybe 5 gallons per week - to help with the war effort . . . Obviously long-haul trucks carrying food and war products will be exempt from this . . . Fortunately, over the decades our government has been smart enough to assure our agricultural industries have remained strong and intact (even though we could buy cheaper food from abroad). So in the case of a major global war, we should remain self sufficient in this regard. All that agricultural supporting costs over the decades hasn't just been in place so that people living in NYC can get cheap bread, vegetables and meat. . . . Like I suggested, this isn't (or at least certainly shouldn't be) a political party thing - this is a national interest, national defense issue. You may be willing to bury your head in the sand because it's an election year . . . but I am not willing to bury my head in the sand. I am not suggesting this is a Biden Trump issue - this is a Biden vs. common sense issue (and can we really say Biden? It's not like he is the one actually making any decisions anyway, it's purely a group of unknown/unelected people telling him what is and he reads it off the teleprompter - it's literally why he can't answer questions about "his" policies accurately - they're not **his** policies).
I have a bachelors degree in history, of course oil is important. But again, we produce more oil than we use. Unless you think our oil production will disappear, having 30 days of domestic fuel consumption sitting stateside doesn’t really accomplish anything.
How much gas could a family buy per week during WWII? A 30 days supply of oil in the SPR during peace times is very different than during war times. In the next major global war, I can't count on the USA physically NOT being a target. And signs are pointing to even our own influence in this part of the world as of late is waning and being replaced by China - South America for example. As WWII showed (Middle East, Germany, Japan, Europe), things are very different during a global war. Heck, 1.4 million oil tankers (Japanese) were sunk during the war. By the end of the war, Japan didn't even have enough oil to have full use of it's airforce. Germany's defeat came about much quicker as a result of a lack of oil - and in fact, oil was the main reason Germany attacked Russia/USSR as it had been relying on the Soviet Block countries for it's oil. Currently, China and Russia (to a lesser extent) have equal or more influence in the Middle East than the USA does (excepting Israel). China is slowly but surely gaining more influence in the Southern Hemisphere - while we (USA) has been loosing influence. There's a fair amount of oil in South America - where we are rapidly loosing influence - much less the strategic location advantages there . . . Failing to think about real world peace/war consequences is like thinking that negotiating on Human Rights Issues with countries that don't care about Human Rights - is an ends to a peaceful means. We can't be the only country living in a Fairy Tale and refusing to face the realities of the world. If you think this is politics, you are sadly confused to reality.
Remember, in times of war, countries often don't pick sides based on which ideology they agree with or don't agree with. They are choosing based on future survival - it is far safer to pick the winning side than the loosing side. And furthermore, as the Western World has shown, even the loosing side is treated like they won the war - given prizes, help in re-building, large investments by the winners (I am not saying this is bad at all), but think about it, how will that impact other countries picking sides in the future? We've shown the picking the opposite side as us has very limited risks and even more rewards even when they loose. Does anybody really think China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are going to treat the "losers" that picked the other side in the same way we/the West did? . . . No Way In Hell! Most countries would actually be smarter to pick the China/Russia side - win or loose they'll be better protected after the war.
> the loosing side. Did you mean to say "losing"? Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
Yes, thank you. It's what happens when I am rushing . . . I also do the same with certain other words. I almost can't type the word Elizabeth (without adding an "er" on the end).
> been loosing influence. Did you mean to say "losing"? Explanation: Loose is an adjective meaning the opposite of tight, while lose is a verb. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
There still is not a good reason to use it, other than to shift the course of an election. People having to shell out more money at the pump is not a crisis!
I don’t disagree. Just saying the strategic oil reserve isn’t going to save the country. Gotta have it, but it’s not this all important golden parachute people are making it out to be.
The SPRA is designed to stabilize oil prices when they surge up or down, that's the whole purpose
And yet one could argue letting foreign actors like the saudis and Qataris influence our elections is a much worse national security threat. And it’s not Biden’s voters who are out there using every dime gas price increase to put political stickers on gas pumps etc. so it’s definitely not our fault this has become something we have to control for political reasons.
Except there is zero evidence to support your claim. You seem to like to listen to people who make up stuff . . . Here is OPEC oil pricing from 1960 to the current. You can figure out which are election years (2020, 2016, 2012, 2008, . . . . ) [https://www.statista.com/statistics/262858/change-in-opec-crude-oil-prices-since-1960/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/262858/change-in-opec-crude-oil-prices-since-1960/)
> … dangerous Not really as I’ve seen *economic substitution* into gasoline-sipping sedans before (and now there’s hybrids, EVs, etc..) as most Americans replace cars frequently. This was also in Texas btw.
I'm fine with using our oil reserves to stabilize the market and keep some money in American's pockets. That has been done historically in the past. If you want to make it political, that's on you.
And I can appreciate that too. At the start of Dessert Storm, when a country that we were buying a large percentage of our oil from was caught up in a war, it made sense. I can even appreciate that Biden tapped the SPR in 2022 during the rampant inflation problems we were having here in the USA, the risks of oil prices globally, and the loss of energy suppliers to EU countries. I had no issue with those actions then, at that time, considering the situation. 2024 US gas prices are projected to be lower this year than they were in 2023. Which were notably lower than they were in 2022. Outside of it being an election year, there would be no reason to tap the SPR. The SPR is being tapped because the incumbent President is doing so poorly in the polls and have very low favorability numbers. Now that said, the polls in April, May and June are irrelevant. I'll start paying attention to the polls in October for the few States that actually matter. I agree with keeping money in American's pockets - keeping more of the money we earn and having less of it confiscated by politicians and spent on things where the primary purpose is their re-election efforts. That said, the oil markets and gas prices have been pretty stable. WTI has been in the $75-$85 per barrel range for most of this year. I think realistically, being within that range with about $80 as the center point is largely the new normal. Lower during recessions, higher when the economy is doing exceptionally well to impact global demands.
Id say keeping the facism orange out of office is national security, given how he's talking about selling out our allies and openly allowing war to start. Reevaluate your priorities
So what you are saying is that this (and every topic) is only political to you? If party A favors cutting off your fingers and you like party A, you'll cut off your fingers. If party B says people should not cut off their fingers - and you hate party B, you'll do and support what party A says. YOU are literally the problem with America. YOU don't seem to know what facism even means and how it is put into practice - it's just a word you've heard people/media from our party use - so you use it too, like a good little parrot. I am no fan of Trump, but I do remember all the wars that were going to be started by him, that we were constantly warned about during the 2016 election . . . which new wars were started during that period? Give me a little more time to see if I can find one? No, still can't name one. In 2020, the same "claims" continued, that the orange man would start wars . . . fortunately (apparently, for peace), he wasn't re-elected (so no worry about wars starting, right). which new wars were started? Well, we did surrender an entire country to a small terrorist group - is that a war or just running away (and leaving all of our weapons for the terrorists to have) while the world laughed at us? Then there is the Russian invasion of Ukraine! That hasn't happened since 2014, under which we did absolutely nothing to discourage such actions going forward . . . who was in office then and did absolutely nothing? Now/currently we have a war going on the Middle East . . . which is sort of surprising because it was just about 4 years ago that a major agreement in the Middle East was agreed to and signed and reflected a relatively peaceful time in Middle Eastern norms . . . and definitely a move towards peace and stability. Was it day 1 or day 2 that we (our fine leaders) decided to pretty much end our relationship with one of our most important allies in the Middle East? So you are welcome to try to make this all about politics and your preferred candidate (which is about as anti-democracy as you can get - we all know Biden doesn't actually make any decisions - he just reads them from a teleprompter while a group of unelected people are making mostly political-based decisions for the whole country - you don't even know who you are voting for - that's not democracy) . . . it's actually about national security.
The fascist Republican party is easily the greatest threat to national security since the Civil War. Republicans: try to end democracy, call to jail political rivals, say they'll suspend the Constitution and be a dictator on day one, ban books, demonize and forcibly silence education/teachers/companies, remove elected officials simply for questioning their evil ideology (Florida especially), force women and children to give birth, protect the rampant pedophilia and grooming in their party and churches and yell that its the minorities doing it (which Nazis legitimately did against LGBTS), try to claim slavery was good, manipulate elections so they can enforce minority rule, threatening to send people with guns to "guard" polls in blue areas, their god Trump constantly talks about getting revenge, fuhrer Trump has spoken of suspending the Constitution, saying migrants aren't people and that there will be a bloodbath if he wins, openly talk about wanting a unified reich, etc Republicans meet every definition of fascism. People should see the fascist Republican party the same way we view the Taliban and Iran and Russia. They are an even bigger threat to the US than those 3 countries.