Statement from Jen Psaki on Awarding First Barrels from Historic Strategic Petroleum Reserve Release Publisher: The White House Byline: Jen Psaki Date: 21 April 2022 Subjects: American Government , Petroleum

President Biden is using all the tools at his disposal to address Putin’s Price Hike at the pump. Today, the Department of Energy announced that it has awarded contracts for all of the initial thirty million barrels it put up for sale as part of the emergency release of 1 million barrels per day in oil for the next 6 months. This is an important step to addressing the supply shortage and the Putin Price Hike Americans are facing. These sales will continue. And because of round-the-clock diplomatic efforts, our partners and Allies have committed to releasing an additional 60 million barrels.

This is just the latest result of the Biden Administration’s efforts to do everything in our power to lower energy costs for American families, including accelerating the deployment of cost-saving clean energy with the urgency this moment requires. Last week, the President announced that his Administration is planning to allow the sale of E15 gasoline in all parts of the country this summer, so that Americans have access to more choices and lower prices. And the Administration continues to work toward real energy independence by rapidly reducing our dependence on oil—including this week’s announcement of critical investments to deploy clean energy.