Biden news – live: President marks trans visibility day and confirms massive oil
‘You’ve got to be silly’: Biden hits back at Ukraine questions from Fox News reporter
President Joe Biden is marking the Transgender Day of Visibility, which declared in order to “celebrate the activism and determination that have fueled the fight for transgender equality” and “acknowledge the adversity and discrimination that the transgender community continues to face across our Nation and around the world” – this as various Republican-led states pass laws directly targeting non-gender-conforming people, including children.
Meanwhile, Mr Biden has ordered the release of up 1 million barrels of oil per day from the strategic petroleum reserve for the next six months in a bid to control prices that have spiked since the US and its allies imposed strict sanctions on Russia.
The announcement comes after both the White House and the Pentagon said that they believe Vladimir Putin is being misinformed about progress in the war by his senior advisers and warned that Russian troops being pulled back from areas near Kyiv may just be being repositioned for futher fighting.
Mr Biden also gave a speech on the state of the coronavirus pandemic, announcing the launch of a central website for resources, before receiving his second booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
Oil prices falling on back of Biden announcement
Indications are that Joe Biden’s announcement of a massive and sustained release of strategic oil reserves is already making an impact on oil prices:
Mr Biden’s decision to ban the import of Russian oil to the US was one of his first major concrete policy moves of the Ukrainian crisis, and it proved broadly popular at the time despite the implications for domestic energy prices.
Andrew Naughtie31 March 2022 16:29
White House says underproducing oil companies should pay extra fees
In a fact sheet accompanying the announcement of a major release of oil reserves, the White House has announced a plan to punish American companies who are hindering the effort to bolster domestic supply:
The fact is that there is nothing standing in the way of domestic oil production. The United States is already approaching record levels of oil and natural gas production. There are oil companies that are doing the right thing and committing to ramp up production now. Right now, domestic production is expected to increase by 1 million barrels per day this year and nearly 700,000 barrels per day next year.
Still, too many companies aren’t doing their part and are choosing to make extraordinary profits and without making additional investment to help with supply. One CEO even acknowledged that, even if the price goes to $200 a barrel, they’re not going to step up production.
Right now, the oil and gas industry is sitting on more than 12 million acres of non-producing Federal land with 9,000 unused but already-approved permits for production. Today, President Biden is calling on Congress to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing. Companies that are producing from their leased acres and existing wells will not face higher fees. But companies that continue to sit on non-producing acres will have to choose whether to start producing or pay a fee for each idled well and unused acre.
Andrew Naughtie31 March 2022 16:17
Biden confirms strategic oil release
Joe Biden has confirmed that 1 million barrels of oil will be released from the US strategic reserve every day for the next six months in an effort to bring down fuel prices.
Andrew Feinberg has the news:
Andrew Naughtie31 March 2022 16:02
Manchin opposes plan to scrap Trump-era border policy
The news that the Biden administration will scrap the controversial Title 42 policy blocking asylum claims at the US border has not gone down well with all Democrats. CNN’s Manu Raju reports that Joe Manchin, one of the biggest thorns in Mr Biden’s side, is already dug in against the move…
Andrew Naughtie31 March 2022 15:53
Trump lashes out at Biden over oil
Donald Trump has begun his day with a statement claiming credit for filling up the US’s oil reserves and criticising Joe Biden for reportedly planning to release a vast quantity of the stored oil to help tackle fuel prices. Mr Trump laments that Mr Biden is considering touching “what we so carefully and magically built” – despite the fact that this is exactly what the reserve is intended for.
Per his usual method of dissemination, here’s the screenshot shared by his spokeswoman Liz Harrington on Twitter, from which the sometime president and Mar-a-Lago president is banned.
Andrew Naughtie31 March 2022 15:15
ICYMI: Biden announces new Covid portal for Americans
Along with asking Congress for more emergency funding and getting his second booster shot on camera, Joe Biden yesterday announced a new website, Covid.gov, that…
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