From Reuters, May 21:
US to close Northeast gasoline reserve with 1 million-barrel sale
President Joe Biden's administration will sell nearly 1 million barrels of gasoline in the U.S.-managed stockpile in northeastern states as required by law, the Department of Energy said on Tuesday, effectively closing the near decade-old reserve.
The department created the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve in 2014 after Superstorm Sandy left motorists scrambling for fuel. But storing refined fuel is costlier than storing crude oil, so closing the reserve was included in U.S funding legislation signed in March by Biden, a Democrat.Bids are due on May 28 and the Treasury Department's general funds gets proceeds from the sale, the department said.The volumes will be allocated in quantities of 100,000 barrels with each barrel containing 42 gallons, the department said. The gasoline should flow into local retailers ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, it said.While the sale was mandated by bipartisan legislation, both the Biden administration and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tried to score points from it....
....MUCH MORE
The sale idea was only taken up in March 2024 legislation, per the above link. Couldn't the powers that be have thought this through and figured out a way to delay the sales until the end of the official hurricane season, November 30?
Surely there could be some sort of executive order—I hear they are popular in D.C.—to hold off in the face of what is forecast to be one of the busiest hurricane seasons since the last La Niña: