Two White House initiatives unveiled on Thursday show how President Biden is struggling to navigate an oil supply crunch without letting his clean energy goals blow even further off-course.
Catch up fast: Biden announced the release of up to 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and urged U.S. producers to speed up tepid production growth, too.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday said it was raising fuel economy requirements, reversing a rollback by former President Trump.
Driving the news: The new standards will increase fuel efficiency requirements by 8% annually for model years 2024 and 2025 and 10% annually for model year 2026, according to the new rules.
President Biden is ordering the release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve of 1 million barrels per day on average for the next six months, he announced Thursday.
Why it matters: The historic release size underscores how much Russia's war is causing havoc in energy markets — and how the White House hopes to limit political fallout from high gas prices.
