Former U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette stated Wednesday that the decision by Biden to withdraw oil from U.S. reserve reserves was a “mistake”.

It’s not a good policy decision, I believe it. “There’s no doubt about that,” he stated to CNBC. “Capital Connection”One day after the President Joe BidenIt was announced 50 million barrels of oil would be releasedThe country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

As part of the global effort by countries that consume high amounts of energy to lower energy prices, China, India and South Korea will be also releasing oil reserves.

Brouillette was the former energy secretary of President Donald Trump and the SPR in the U.S. are national security assets that help protect citizens and the country from disruptions to supply.

“It’s not a supply emergency, and the only emergency I can … see in this case is a political emergency,” he said.

Brouillette stated that the Biden administration’s actions show they care about 2022 midterm elections.

“This is driving the decision — perhaps more than anything else — because as I said earlier, it’s not a supply emergency,” he said.

U.S. Oil Producers pump around 11 million barrels per dayAccording to Energy Information Administration, it is.

“The problem for the United States of America is not [oil] supply, it’s politics,” Brouillette said. “I hate to see these types of decisions … the Strategic Petroleum Reserve being used in this way. It’s unfortunate.”

He said, “It is a mistake and we shouldn’t be using it for such purposes.”

According to the, the SPR has been used by three Presidents as an emergency response tool. Office of
Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.These drawdowns were made to stabilize the market in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Libya’s civil War and the Persian Gulf War.

The U.S. asked OPEC and its allies to increase productionTo lower prices but the oil alliance stuck to its plan of adding supply gradually.

Brouillette said using the SPR to “strike back” at OPEC is “absolutely … the wrong approach,” and there are other levers the U.S. can use.

The U.S. should not tap the resources, but instead allow U.S. projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline, a key U.S.-Canada pipeline expected to transport approximately 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Alberta to Nebraska every day. It was. officially canceled in JuneBiden had to revoke a permit that was required to allow the U.S. portion of the 1,200 mile project.

Former energy secretary, John Bolton said that Washington may also be able to allow oil production on federal lands.

Biden was one of the first to act upon his January inauguration. He signed several executive actions related to climate change. halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and water.The suspension was temporarily halted. record offshore lease sale opened this month.

Brouillette suggested that increasing oil production would be better than influencing the prices. Brouillette noted that the U.S. has been a major producer over many years, and had essentially established the global oil price.

He said, “Our ability of producing 13 million barrels per day of oil truly shaped the market for three or four years.” “It’s important that we return to that approach — not using a national asset like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to affect pricing.”

— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens, Matt Clinch, Natasha Turak and Emma Newburger contributed to this report.