North Raleigh Today

President Joe Biden's plan to lower gasoline prices doesn't seem to be working.

On March 31, he announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), but all it has done is given Americans false hope of finding relief at the pump. Gas prices are higher than they've been in decades. 

“There’s little, if any, good news about fuel prices heading into summer, and the problem could become worse should we see an above-average hurricane season, which could knock out refinery capacity at a time we badly need it, as refined product inventories continue to plummet," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said on its website.

The national average is up 20 cents per gallon from the day of the announcement, and in North Carolina, the state average of $4.20 per gallon has climbed almost 25 cents per gallon in just the last week. In Raleigh, May 12's average of $4.22 per gallon has set a record for the city, according to AAA.

As of May 12, the national gas price average is $4.42 per gallon, a 7.8% climb from a month ago when the average was $4.10 per gallon. On March 31, the day of the SPR release, gas was $4.22 per gallon, according to AAA.

GasBuddy points out that while national fuel prices dropped slightly after spiking in March, as the war between Russia and Ukraine has continued, prices are back on the uptick. Just in the last week, the national average climbed more than 15 cents per gallon. 

Meanwhile, domestic oil production is still being stifled by the Biden administration.

Biden announced the release up to 180 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's SPR over the next six months as part of his effort to curb high gas prices. The president said there would be a slight delay in declining gas prices by days and weeks, but he assured the nation prices would drop.

"It could come down fairly significantly,” he said, according to CNBC. “It could come down [to] a better part of anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon. It’s unknown at this point.” 

Energy Information Administration (EIA) tracking shows total oil production in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive months, contradicting administration officials' claims that domestic production is at historic highs. 

“Production is essentially higher than it’s been in a couple decades,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said during a congressional hearing two weeks ago, according to the House Appropriations Committee. “On the federal lands, we’re doing what we need to do and we’re following the law and making sure that we are moving those issues forward.” 

Biden signed an executive order freezing all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, shortly after taking office in January 2021. He has since canceled a number of oil leases. According to The Hill, the administration has now canceled oil and gas lease sales in Alaska's Cook Inlet and in the Gulf of Mexico. The lease in Alaska would have covered more than 1 million acres.