美国国家公共电台 NPR--Biden will release another 15 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve

Biden will release another 15 million barrels from the strategic petroleum¹ reserve

Transcript²

President Biden is under pressure to show he's doing all he can to bring down prices at the pump. He plans to talk Wednesday about how he'll pull more oil from emergency reserves.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

With midterm voting already underway, President Biden is facing pressure to get high gas prices down. They surged after Russia invaded Ukraine, then slowly dropped over the summer.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

But OPEC and Russia announced a production cut. So this afternoon, the president will announce what his administration is doing to try to temper prices.

FADEL: Joining us now is NPR political reporter Deepa Shivaram. Hi, Deepa.

DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE³: Hey there.

FADEL: So what's the president going to say about the moves he's making?

SHIVARAM: Yeah, the president is going to announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from what's called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That's the stockpile of oil that the U.S. has. And that release will happen in December, with about 500,000 barrels per day coming into the market. The White House says that this release will help to make sure that gas prices don't spike⁴ up, even with variables like Russia's actions in Ukraine. And this release is related to an announcement that the administration made back in March, when they said that they would release 180 million barrels from the stockpile over several months, which was the largest release ever. This 15 million number is included in that 180 million original number.

FADEL: OK. So what he's announcing is not new. Is there something new here?

SHIVARAM: Yeah, that's true. There's no new number here because this upcoming 15 million was already anticipated. But a senior administration official told reporters last night that the president had directed his top economic officials to be in a high state of readiness and prepared to go beyond the 180 million barrels if necessary to keep prices stable. Overall, though, this announcement isn't that significant. And it won't really have much of an impact on gas prices either. I spoke⁵ with Jay Hakes, the former head of the Energy Information Administration, about it.

JAY HAKES: We're talking about fairly small potatoes here with putting 15 million barrels into the market. And I think the market was probably expecting that to happen anyway.

SHIVARAM: Hakes told me that this announcement doesn't move the needle too much on pricing. But he did say, overall, the release of the 180 million barrels did help people get through what he calls a rough patch from earlier this summer when gas prices were higher. He also said that this move from the administration could be interpreted as pushback on OPEC+, which recently said they would slash⁶ oil production by 2 million barrels per day. And he said that with this announcement, the administration is signaling to OPEC, you know, hey, look; we have tools at our disposal, too.

FADEL: So these stockpiles are there for times of natural disasters, huge supply shocks. Are they going to be refilled for a future emergency?

SHIVARAM: Yeah. White House officials said there are about 400 million barrels of oil remaining in the stockpile after the 180 million barrels are drawn⁷ out. That's a four-decade low. And the White House says they do have a plan to refill the reserve. They want to buy back the oil once prices fall below $72 per barrel. That's about $10 less than what it costs now. Officials say that the amount would give domestic producers some certainty so that they can keep pumping oil. But the exact timeline on when and how that process would happen is still a little unclear.

In the meantime, the president in his speech is going to call on oil and gas companies to pass their savings⁸ onto consumers. And this is all happening just weeks before voting ends in the midterm elections. With inflation and the economy being top issues for voters this year, Biden and Democrats⁹ want to come out ahead on any actions they're taking to level out costs.

FADEL: NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Thank you so much.

SHIVARAM: Thank you.

1 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

7 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

8 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

9 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》