Biden Administration May Tap Into Emergency Diesel Fuel Reserve

The Biden Administration is considering tapping into an emergency diesel reserve to help address rising fuel costs in the United States.

According to Reuters, the Biden Administration may utilize diesel fuel from its Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, which was established in 2000 to compensate for interruptions in fuel supply during severe winter weather. The first and only time the government has tapped into reserve was in 2012 amid a shortage of diesel fuel following Hurricane Sandy.

While tapping into the emergency reserve will put more diesel on the market, it’s unlikely to have much impact on the price of diesel in most parts of the country, as the supply only has about 1 million barrels of diesel fuel in it. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. transportation sector burned 44.61 billion gallons (1.06 billion barrels) of distillate fuel in 2020, an average of about 122 million gallons per day.

“We have teed up this reserve option to stay ahead of the problem, and will not hesitate to use other levers at our disposal to support families and the recovery,” a White House official said, as quoted by Reuters.

Rising diesel fuel costs can lead to higher prices for almost all commodities and consumer goods, as the majority of these items are transported by trucks and trains with diesel engines. Most construction and farming vehicles also use diesel.

Speaking during a media appearance in Iowa in April, President Biden partly attributed rising fuel costs to Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

“Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food prices all over the world,” Biden said. “So everything is going up. We saw it in today’s inflation data. Seventy percent of the increase in prices in March came from Putin’s price hike in gasoline.”

While data from the U.S. EIA shows the price of a gallon of diesel fuel has been steadily rising since late 2020, a much steeper hike is observable after the Ukraine-Russia conflict started in late February.

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Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.

Sam McEachern

Sam loves to write and has a passion for auto racing, karting and performance driving of all types.

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  • Biden is a complete lunatic in every thing he touches this move on fuel will accomplish nothing

  • It really seems unwise to drain our strategic oil reserves and diesel reserves just to cover a dumb move by the administration! Just remove the sanctions on US energy and finish the pipelines! Duh!

  • Biden has no clue about anything and has been bought by putin and or china...aoc needs to be gone as there is where all this bullsh*t comes from...Biden family has been bought out by others ...this whole administration needs to be gone asap as they they have not a care about the American people

  • Is the fuel in the stockpile “low sulfur”. If not how will it work in the diesels with converters for emission control?
    Asking for a friend.

  • I didn’t think much of Trump. I figured he would have started world war 3.
    But fact is that he pushed fracking and that made the US a lot less dependent on OPEC….
    It also drove the price way down because of less fuel being imported.
    Trump was very much a USA protectionist for US economic independence.
    He was spooky but he had some great ideas.
    The wall between the US and Mexico
    Made in the USA a priority
    I am Canadian, and what you guys probably don’t know is Canada has the 3rd largest oil reserve in the world. But both Biden and Trudeau agree that oil should stay in the ground. Because of the so called global warming issue.
    Biden asked opec to up oil production to help with high prices. The Premier of Alberta asked him why he didn’t turn to Canada if he wanted oil…………
    And no electric cars are not the answer (yet)
    It will take close to 50 years to build enough Nuclear Reactors and upgrade every power line on every street in every State and Province to support getting off of fossil fuel……..
    Do your research people….
    And sorry guys but Biden has made a fool of himself and it is displayed on every network around the world…… He is totally out of his realm….

    • No, no, Mr. Mike and his brothers in harm peer far deeper into the issue than the minds of mere mortals are capable - but thank you for your seemingly rational outside the USA assessment nonetheless. Everything's fine. Now carry on all you ignorant plebeians!

      $6.79 a gallon for diesel today in the CA Sierras and $15.00 for a freaking 12" Subway sandwich! It's all going swimmingly per the Build Back Better plan, eh Mike? Orange Man Bad, right?!! Tallyho!

  • Biden is better off staying in his basement. Only the dumbest Democrat still believes Biden has Americas best interests in mind. You can't fix this country when you are shoveling dirt on it.

  • I think that this idiot's strategy is going to backfire. There will be a lot of animosity toward the "New Green Deal" as consumers realize that it is costing them more money for everything and lowering their standard of living.