The market response to the Biden administration’s decision to release 50 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to control skyrocketing gas prices has been underwhelming, but the response from state and local energy experts is much more direct.

Oil prices were actually higher Wednesday in the wake of Biden’s announcement on Tuesday, which Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma President Brook Simmons called a “political gimmick” and local oilman Steve Altman said was part of Biden’s “mission to rid the U.S. of the oil and gas industry.”

China, India, Japan, North Korea and the United Kingdom also are expected to tap their reserves in a coordinated effort to drive down prices at the pump.

“The president stands ready to take additional action, if needed, and is prepared to use his full authorities working in coordination with the rest of the world to maintain adequate supply as we exit the pandemic,” according to a statement released by the White House on Tuesday.

Altman, the president of local oil company Brown & Borelli Inc. who has been in the energy business more than 40 years, said the move is part of the latest in a systematic effort to dismantle fossil fuel exploration and production.

“It started with cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, then canceling oil and gas leasing on federal lands and denying drilling permits,” he said. “Then it went to nominating people for many federal bureaucracies who also hold those anti oil and gas views (like the banking nominee who wants to make it illegal for banks to do business with oil and gas companies.)

“And the next step is setting fees for the release of methane that could make a large percentage of our wells uneconomic, resulting in them being plugged.”

The current economic situation is the result of those disastrous policies, Altman and Simmons both said.

“Fast forward 10 months and what do we see: the highest gasoline prices in eight years (since Obama) and the potential for the highest home heating bills ever to be seen in this country this winter,” Altman said.

“The American people are figuring out that the Biden administration and its allies have now stuck working families with higher fuel, food, home heating and electricity prices,” Simmons said. “The president is now scrambling to hide the real-world effects of artificial energy scarcity.”

“And Biden and his cronies have the nerve to blame the oil and gas companies for conspiring to raise the prices on these commodities,” Altman said. “If this thinking wasn’t so dangerous, it would be a comedy routine.”

Like the administration’s previous plan to ask OPEC+ nations to voluntarily increase production in order to bring prices down, dumping more oil into the market from the strategic reserve is another artificial price control effort that is also doomed to fail, Altman said.

“If Joe releases oil from the reserve, it could, in fact, drive the price down for a short period. But what happens if the price goes down? Then the incentive to look for and produce more oil goes away, and the oil companies do not drill to increase the supply,” Altman said.

“So, the very thing that would bring the price down, that being an increasing supply, is blocked by the release of the reserves.

“Since we cannot tap the reserves an unlimited number of times, that supply goes away and the price surges back up again. Only this time, since this is all artificial, it will, in all likelihood, go up even higher, since the ‘normal’ production will have dropped even more due to the artificially lower prices.”

“Instead of begging foreign adversaries for relief and temporary, political gimmicks, (the administration) should embrace American energy abundance, oilfield innovation, and clean-burning natural gas to bring manufacturing jobs back home for the long haul,” Simmons said.

Oil and gas market fluctuations can be “brutal,” Altman said. “Remember $10 (per barrel) oil in 1988? And $130 oil in 2008?”

But without artificial government interference, the market is self-regulating.

“Eventually, with a higher price, the supply will increase, bringing the price back down,” Altman said. “I have seen this cycle repeat itself for 44 years, since I started in the oilfield in 1977.”

“There is an old saying about getting things done: Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way,” Altman added. “Joe, you’ve tried leading but, unfortunately, you are leading us over a cliff.

“So, it is time for you to follow or, better yet, get out of the way. Let’s get the adults back in charge. We did it before, we can do it again.”

As a final comment, Altman noted the hypocrisy of Biden’s “green energy policy” to stop oil and gas production in the U.S. and then utilize foreign sources or the strategic reserve to replenish the available supply.

“So we are not decreasing the amount we burn but only amount we produce?” Altman said. “Now that’s a government policy if I ever saw one.”