For better or worse, our economy still runs on fossil fuels, and people have real lives and families to take care of. There has to be a balance between battling climate change and being able to provide for families and keep the economy going. The problem is that everyone has a difference of opinion on where that balance is, and the harder it is for people to put food on the table, the less likely they are to support climate change efforts. Also, the harder it is to put food on the table, the more likely voters are to vote out whoever is in office.

Biden right now is trying to keep prices in a range that voters are at least willing to accept. Republicans aren't against it because they suddenly care about the climate change crisis. They're against it because any perceived "win" Biden gets lowers the chances of Trump returning to power and basically taking a shit all over efforts to fight climate change.

Republican energy policy is to let oil barons do whatever they want, destroy whatever they want for new drilling and pay as little taxes as possible.

Democrat energy strategy is to regulate oil, preserve delicate ecosystems by banning oil/gas exploration wells and fracking in those areas and investing in expanded green energy policy.

The political problem for Dems is that ballooning prices at the gas pump are very unpopular with moderate/undecided voters (reality is that almost everyone in this country has to fill up their car tank regularly) and the oil barons can manipulate their output, control the messaging and change these people's votes (especially in an election year).

Dumping some of our strategic reserves when prices get too high is a strategy that counters this machination.

And if the world supply is in a high producing state, dumping some of these reserves can sink prices low enough we can refill those reserves for cheaper than we initially bought the reserves that we dumped.

Republicans then get on the horn and claim this is risky, helps nobody but democrat politics, etc, etc. They're not wrong, but the entire thing is political brinkmanship, so... who cares? 😄