Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is calling out President Biden on his decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to tame skyrocketing gas prices. He says that America’s working families are paying the price by limiting the production of American energy, killing energy infrastructure, and strong-arming America’s financial institutions to not invest in American energy projects, including Alaska.
Congressman Don Young released a statement saying that there’s no reason for Biden to release the reserves when so much domestic energy is readily available, including Alaska’s ANWR Coastal Plain, which stands ready to alleviate the oil crisis and prevent the country from opening up the oil reserves. Young says that in 1980, then-Senator Joe Biden voted for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which allowed for oil extraction on ANWR’s Coastal Plain in the first place.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in a statement, said that this was labeled as a false solution – debunked as recently as last week at a hearing held by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, stating that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is meant to be used to respond to severe energy supply disruptions, can backfire as a half-solution to a real problem.