Biden taps US oil reserves to bring down gas prices

Biden draws from US oil reserves to fight rising gas prices; Putin declares martial law in occupied Ukraine.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

The US to release 15 million barrels of oil reserves

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• President Joe Biden announced the December release of 15 million barrels from the US strategic reserve to help keep gas prices down. [New York Times / Alan Rappeport]
• This completes the 180 million barrels he directed be released in March after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring. [USA Today / Maureen Groppe]
• Recently, OPEC+ countries announced production cuts of 2 million barrels a day, which raised fears of a surge in US gas prices. [CNN / Phil Mattingly and Sam Fossum]
• However, experts say Biden’s announcement is unlikely to lower prices at the pump. The US consumes 20 million barrels of oil daily. [NBC News / Lauren Egan]
• Biden also asked oil companies not to raise prices and urged them to pass some of their high profits on to consumers. [NPR / Dustin Jones]
• There are now about 400 million barrels left in the reserves. The administration plans to replenish resources when prices fall to around $67-$72 a barrel. [Politico / Ben Lefebvre]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox’s Jonathan Guyer explains why the OPEC+ oil production cuts should not surprise the Biden administration. [Vox / Jonathan Guyer]

Putin declares martial law in occupied Ukraine

• President Vladimir Putin said Russia would impose martial law in four regions Moscow illegally annexed in Ukraine. [Washington Post / Robyn Dixon]
• Putin didn’t offer immediate details. But the decision, effective Thursday, will likely grant local authorities power to restrict travel and increase censorship in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. [AP]
• The announcement comes after Ukraine handed Russia a series of military defeats that have seen the Kremlin escalate missile and drone strikes. [Reuters / Mark Trevelyan]
• Meanwhile, as many as 60,000 Russians evacuated Kherson as Ukraine mounts a counteroffensive to take back the region. [BBC / Paul Kirby and Paul Adams]

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Actress Anna May Wong, who rose to prominence in the 1920s, will be the first Asian American featured on US currency. [NPR / Ashley Ahn]

• Hurricane Ian triggered an increase in flesh-eating bacteria cases in Lee County, Florida. [ABC News / Meredith Deliso]
• A group of Wisconsin taxpayers asked the Supreme Court to block the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program after a lower-level court dismissed their case. [CNN / Katie Lobosco]
• Former President Donald Trump will be deposed Wednesday in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit. She alleges he raped her in the mid-1990s. [NBC News / Summer Concepcion]

“My message to oil companies is this: You’re sitting on record profits and we’re giving you more certainty, so you can act now to increase oil production.”

[President Biden’s message to oil companies / NBC News]

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