On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced a decision to sell 1 million barrels of gasoline to the commercial market from a reserve in a bid to push down prices at the pump this summer.

The plan comes as President Joe Biden is running for a second term in the White House in this year’s November election while dealing with the scourge of inflation, a fact that Republican officials noted in reacting to the decision.

“President Biden is yet again using America’s emergency fuel reserves to cover for his disastrous inflationary policies in an election year,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said in a post to X.

Stores from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve (NGSR) will be sold in a “competitive bidding process” to help “lower costs for American families and consumers” in the run-up to Independence Day, per the Energy Department.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is laser focused on lowering prices at the pump for American families, especially as drivers hit the road for summer driving season,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

“By strategically releasing this reserve in between Memorial Day and July 4th, we are ensuring sufficient supply flows to the tri-state and northeast at a time hardworking Americans need it the most,” she added.

Not mentioned in the press release was how the United States, as recently as 2023, was consuming an average of roughly 8.94 million barrels of gasoline each day.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP

The Obama administration created the NGSR in response to Superstorm Sandy, which damaged refineries and terminals when it hit the northeastern United States in 2012, leaving some gas stations without fuel for weeks.

Because the Biden administration has also sapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in an attempt to stabilize global oil markets and combat rising gasoline prices, some critics argued the president has placed the country at risk.

“Joe Biden’s failed Far Left Democrats anti-American energy agenda continues to compromise our national security,” said the X account for House Republicans, responding to news of the planned NGSR release.

“This is ridiculous,” said Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA). “Instead of depleting our oil reserves, the President should support American energy production.”

He added, “He can start by calling on the Senate to pass the Lower Energy Costs Act and signing this bill into law so that we can lower gas prices for American families.”

Oakland, a blue city in California, took down a traffic light at a busy intersection after thieves kept swiping copper wire, and residents say the nearby homeless encampment is to blame.

City workers replaced the traffic lights with four-way stop signs at the intersection located at East 12th Street and 16th Avenue.

The move came after people repeatedly stole copper wire and tampered with the electrical box at the intersection to allegedly steal power.

The city tried putting heavy cement blocks on top of the electrical boxes, but people simply dragged them out of the way, a city spokesman said. The stop signs are temporary, according to the city, but it does not have a timeline for reinstalling the traffic lights.

Neighbors expressed their frustration, and some blamed the homeless encampment around the intersection. The encampment spans about three blocks on 12th Street from 17th and 14th Avenues.

“If you really want to fix the stop sign, I think you really have to clean up this homeless encampment,” Tam Le, owner of Le’s Auto Body & Engine Repair, told CBS San Francisco. He has been running his auto shop on a corner of the intersection for more than 25 years.

“It’s just telling us that the city is giving up on us,” Le said.

The traffic lights had not worked properly for months before they were taken down, residents said.

“The city did try to fix the traffic light at least a few times. But once they fixed it, normally within a week or so, it will go out again,” Le said.

Violent crime is up overall in Oakland compared to this time last year, according to the latest police data. Robberies, in particular, have spiked, topping 1,000 incidents already this year.

Robberies involving a gun are up 21% to 409 incidents, and carjackings are up 4% to 166 incidents. Aggravated assaults are down but remain high at more than 900 incidents. Homicides are also down, but 23 people have already been killed this year.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP

Oakland residents have been sounding off about rising crime for at least a year.

Last May, about 500 angry residents showed up to a town hall meeting on crime to demand answers from city leaders on Oakland becoming more dangerous, especially violent incidents perpetrated on women and the elderly.

In July, the Oakland chapter of the NAACP blasted city leaders and called for a state of emergency over the city’s crime “crisis.” The black civil rights organization, which tends to lean Left, blamed the “defund the police” movement specifically as part of the reason for the crime spike.

In nearby San Francisco, the worsening trifecta of crime, homelessness, and public drug use has caused many businesses to abandon the city’s once bustling downtown area. This has left many commercial buildings empty and cut into the city’s tax revenue, exacerbating the city’s growing budget deficit, which officials warned could reach nearly $1.4 billion by 2027.