Just in time for the busy travel season, the White House is expected to release 50 million barrels of crude oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's part of the Biden Administration's plan to ease some of the pressure from high gas prices.
"While our combined actions will not solve the problem with high gas prices overnight, it will make a difference," President Biden said in a press conference Tuesday.
But some local experts told KATC they believe it's a temporary band-aid.
Members of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association said dipping into the SPR may bring the price of gas down anywhere from five to 15 cents per gallon, but this won't be happening as soon as one may think.
KATC spoke with Dr. Anthony Greco, Ph.D., who has been a professor of economics at UL for 38 years. He said people who are hitting the highways for the holidays may still be emptying their pockets at the pump for a little while longer.
"It probably won't do too much good for the Thanksgiving driving, and people will continue to expect high prices," Greco said. "As far as a financial impact on them, not too much immediately, maybe a little bit of a relief in a month or so but again, not for long term."
LOGA's president Mike Moncla concurs. He said that as the country makes its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand from Americans should increase and the issue of higher gas prices may fix itself.
"They're sick and tired of being stuck at home, so they're ready to go back out there," Moncla told KATC. "So over the next several months with the price of oil now at 80 dollars, I think there'll be more activity drilling and so I think this problem may fix itself, you know, you shouldn't have to go to the SPR."
So while you may not see a change in gas prices just yet, experts said it looks like prices — and your pain at the pump — could be lower by Christmas.
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