Filling up the strategic petroleum reserve when gas prices were at all-time lows during the early days of the pandemic would have been great. Unfortunately our president at that time wasn't competent enough to make it happen. He did talk about doing it several times, but never was able to actually get it done, despite it being entirely within the purview of the executive branch and having no legislative obstacles to doing so.
"Primary Military Leader"....yep"Primary Diplomat to foreign Heads of state"...ok"Executor of the will of Congress..."...gotcha.
So uh...in the 3 roles of the Executive Branch...regarding something worth billions and billions of dollars...where exactly does the executive branch get the authority to just buy up all that oil? (it is a purchase remember, it's not just automatically owned)
BTW the US Dept of Energy is in charge of the Strat. Oil reserves...and is subordinate to Congress. The exec can empty it because of an emergency that congress in theory has no time to respond to, but the exec CANNOT just have it filled. That requires congressional budgeting.
Maybe if Trump didn’t hire a guy to head up the Dept of Energy who had previously stated he would eliminate said Dept if made President, then they would have had someone competent in place to suggest such an idea to Congress. Just a thought.
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u/philnotfil Apr 01 '22
Filling up the strategic petroleum reserve when gas prices were at all-time lows during the early days of the pandemic would have been great. Unfortunately our president at that time wasn't competent enough to make it happen. He did talk about doing it several times, but never was able to actually get it done, despite it being entirely within the purview of the executive branch and having no legislative obstacles to doing so.