Energy industry slams Biden's Strategic Petroleum Reserve release plan: 'Not a long-term solution'

Energy industry representatives Thursday slammed President Biden's plan to release one million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as short-sighted amid other policies that discourage production. 

"While this release could provide some near-term relief, it is not a long-term solution to meeting growing demand for affordable and reliable energy," said Frank Macchiarola, American Petroleum Institute's senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs. "Instead of managing from crisis to crisis, we should be focused on promoting policies that avoid them altogether through increased production of our nation’s domestic energy resources."

Energy prices skyrocketed in recent months, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bipartisan pressure forced Biden to ban Russian oil imports, and officials like Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm adjusted to be more favorable to U.S. production since the war started. 

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO RELEASE 1M BARRELS OF OIL DAILY FROM US RESERVES

But energy industry officials, Republicans and even some Democrats continued to criticize the administration for some of its policies they say are harming investment in U.S. energy and long-term production.

Now amid increasing pressure over gas prices, the White House announced Thursday that Biden will aim to increase domestic supply by injecting an unprecedented amount of oil into the market. 

"After consultation with allies and partners, the president will announce the largest release of oil reserves in history, putting one million additional barrels on the market per day on average — every day — for the next six months," the White House announced. "The scale of this release is unprecedented: the world has never had a release of oil reserves at this 1 million-per-day rate for this length of time."

The White House added that the Department of Energy will use the revenue derived from the release to restock the reserves and "provide a signal of future demand and help encourage domestic production today." 

ENERGY INDUSTRY SWIPES BACK AT PSAKI ‘RED HERRING’ COMMENT ON OIL AND GAS LEASES

The White House also argued that energy companies "aren't doing their part and are choosing to make extraordinary profits without making additional investment to help with supply." 

"Right now, the oil and gas industry is sitting on more than 12 million acres of non-producing federal land with 9,000 unused but already-approved permits for production," the White House said. "Today, President Biden is calling on Congress to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing."

That move from the White House continues a pattern that started earlier this month when White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized the energy industry for allowing so many oil and gas leases to sit unused. But American Exploration and Petroleum Council (AXPC) CEO Anne Bradbury at the time called it a "red herring" that doesn't reflect the reality of the energy industry. 

American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers told FOX Business at the time that, often times, there simply isn't oil or gas below the leased land Psaki referenced. 

"The administration is claiming they are responding to ‘Putin’s Price Hike at the Pump,’ but their planned solution is to target American energy producers with new taxes and fees, while our industry continues to face increased hurdles and regulatory red tape the Biden Administration itself has put in place to restrict domestic production," Bradbury said of Biden's plan Thursday.  

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"A punitive fee on federal lands will not incentivize or expedite development," she added. "Pulling crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will not lower prices in the long term and may even do more harm than good. And targeting American energy workers with false narratives about pricing does not change the law of supply and demand."

Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma Thursday slammed the administration for how it's handling energy prices and the industry in general. But she said the fact that the White House is talking about increasing production is a good sign.

"The White House is in a panic because polling suggests Americans understand that the anti-oil and -gas agenda of this administration is the primary reason gasoline prices are high," Sgamma said. "The president is trying to pass blame onto producers. On the plus side, we’re glad the president now wants us to develop on federal lands, since he had spent the past two years promising to eliminate federal oil."