11.11.202110:02 Forex Analysis & Reviews: Biden faces mounting pressure to curb growing oil prices

President Joe Biden is facing growing pressure from Democrats to address rising oil prices. Some policymakers offered such measures as an introduction of a ban on oil exports and release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Eleven senators from the Democratic party, including avid supports of quick switching to green energy, urged Biden in a letter to acting quickly, setting the average of the highest per-gallon prices since 2014.

"As the United States works to boost the development of clean and renewable energy over the long-term, we must ensure that Americans are able to afford to fill up their cars at the pump in the meantime," said the letter, signed by climate hawks such as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Green New Deal author Ed Markey.

Thanks to the letter, the government may release millions of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Notably, the Biden administration is now holding international climate talks ending in Scotland this week.

Bob McNally, the president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former senior White House policy official, said that the government should release oil from the emergency reserves.

"The administration, by all counts, is looking hardest at an SPR release, which the market has come to expect," McNally said. "I still believe the market is expecting an SPR release later this week and I think that's the likeliest option."

The government is unlikely to impose a ban because it will disrupt the oil supply around the world. Just six years ago, Congress lifted a 40-year ban on US oil exports, reshaping global crude oil markets, geopolitical power, and upending entire economies. The US has become the largest oil producer in the world, delivering oil in more than 50 countries. Its supplies often exceed those of any OPEC country except Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday, oil prices slightly moved away from the annual highs of the year, hovering above $80.

"The secretary and the president continue to monitor the markets and prices including the forecast yesterday from the EIA and continue to evaluate any options for appropriate action at the appropriate point," Jeremiah Baumann, the Energy Department's deputy chief of staff, pointed out.

According to the Energy Information Administration, in August, the United States exported almost 3 million barrels of oil per day.

Currently, the government is mulling over all possible options since the rise in oil and gasoline prices threatens the economic recovery and may hurt Biden's political profile.