The attacks cast more doubt on a tenuous month-old ceasefire that the United States has insisted is still in effect. Washington is awaiting an Iranian response to its latest proposal for a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hopes to receive “a serious offer” from Iran later Friday.

The U.S. military said Friday that its forces had disabled two Iranian tankers that were trying to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports. Hours earlier, the military said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships and struck Iranian military facilities in the strait.

Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling world markets. The U.S. has imposed its own blockade of Iran’s ports.

The UAE’s Defense Ministry meanwhile said three people were wounded after air defenses engaged two ballistic missiles and three drones launched by Iran. It was not clear if all were successfully intercepted.

US says it responded to an attack in the strait

The U.S. military posted video of the two Iranian tankers as their smokestacks were struck by an American fighter jet on Friday. Earlier in the week, an American military jet shot out the rudder of a tanker the U.S. military said was attempting to breach its blockade.

Late Thursday, the U.S. military said it thwarted Iranian attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and struck Iranian military facilities in response. It said no American ships were hit.

“They threaten Americans, they are going to be blown up,” Rubio told reporters Friday.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it called “hostile” U.S. military action, saying it violated the ceasefire. “Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X.

A U.S. strike overnight killed at least one sailor and injured 10 others aboard a cargo vessel that caught fire, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s judiciary reported. It was not clear if the ship was one of the two tankers the U.S. acknowledged striking.

U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted the ceasefire is holding. He also has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran doesn’t accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has been in contact with the U.S. and Iran “day and night” in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.

Images show apparent oil slick off Iranian terminal

Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press show what appears to be an oil slick in the Persian Gulf emanating from the western side of Kharg Island, Iran’s main crude export terminal.

Images taken Friday show the slick covering about 71 square kilometers (27 square miles) and appear to show oil still leaking from the terminal, said Ami Daniel, CEO of maritime intelligence firm Windward AI.

Daniel estimated that the equivalent of roughly 80,000 oil barrels has spilled from Kharg Island since the slick was first detected by satellite images Tuesday. It’s unknown whether the spill was caused by a malfunction, an airstrike or something else.

“This is the risk of fighting in an oil-rich area,” said Daniel, adding that it’s unlikely any cleanup efforts will be launched in Gulf waters that have become an active war zone.

He said the spill appears to be spreading southwest and within the next two weeks could potentially reach the shores of the UAE, Qatar or Saudi Arabia.

Nina Noelle, an international crisis operations expert with Greenpeace Germany, said Friday that preliminary assessment and recent images show the spill beginning to disperse and it appears unlikely that it will impact land. She said depending on wind, waves and current conditions, parts of the slick could still possibly affect some sensitive marine habitats.

“More likely, it will dissipate offshore under prevailing conditions,” Noelle said.

The Pentagon declined to comment on whether the U.S. military was tracking the spill or whether there had been recent strikes on the Iranian island. Based on the imagery taken earlier this week, the spill occurred before the most recent round of U.S. strikes.

Rubio says `unacceptable’ for an Iranian agency to control strait

Rubio said Friday that it’s “unacceptable” for Iran to have a government agency that vets and taxes ships seeking passage through the strait.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a shipping data company, reported Thursday that Iran has created such an agency, known as the Persian Gulf Strait Authority.

The Iranian effort to formalize control over the channel raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial vessels bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea.

“Is the world going to accept that Iran now controls an international waterway?” Rubio said. “What is the world prepared to do about it?”

Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of oil, gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products, while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports.

A Chinese-crewed oil tanker was attacked near the strait. China has continued to import oil from Iran despite the effective closure of the waterway.

China’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern, saying the tanker was registered in the Marshall Islands with Chinese crew on board. There were no casualties reported.

An oil tanker that passed through the Strait of Hormuz in mid-April arrived off South Korea’s coast on Friday with 1 million barrels of crude. South Korea, which last year imported more than 60% of its crude through the strait, has capped prices of gasoline and other petroleum products.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — An energy company should be fined nearly $3.4 million for safety violations involving a 2021 oil pipeline spill that fouled Southern California beaches, a federal regulator said.

Amplify Energy Corp. ignored 83 alarms indicating the offshore pipeline had leaked and failed to notify federal authorities or shut down the pipeline to San Pedro Bay until 17 hours after the first alarms, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a letter proposing the fine that was sent April 6 to the company’s president.

An email to the Houston-based firm seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned Tuesday.

The pipeline carries oil to shore from platforms in San Pedro Bay, near the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.

The October 2021 spill of 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of crude oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and sent blobs of crude ashore, primarily affecting the cities of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. It further shuttered beaches for a week and fisheries for more than a month, oiled birds and threatened area wetlands.

Amplify Energy said the spill was linked to damage from two ships it accused of dragging anchors and striking the pipeline during a January 2021 storm. It reached an $85 million settlement with the vessel companies.

Southern California fishermen, tourism companies and property owners sued Amplify and the shipping vessels seeking compensation for their losses. Amplify agreed to pay $50 million and the vessel companies agreed to pay $45 million to settle those lawsuits.

Amplify also reached a plea deal with federal authorities for negligently discharging crude.

The company announced last month that it received approval from federal regulatory agencies to restart the pipeline.

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COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — At a gas station near the Cologne, Germany, airport, Bernd Mueller watches the digits quickly climb on the pump: 22 euros ($23), 23 euros, 24 euros. The numbers showing how much gasoline he’s getting rise, too. But much more slowly. Painfully slowly.

“I’m getting rid of my car this October, November,” said Mueller, 80. “I’m retired, and then there’s gas and all that. At some point, you’ve got to scale back.”

Across the globe, drivers like Mueller are rethinking their habits and personal finances amid skyrocketing prices for gasoline and diesel, fueled by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the global rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. Energy prices are a key driver of inflation that is rising worldwide and making the cost of living more expensive.

A motorcycle taxi driver in Vietnam turns off his ride-hailing app rather than burn precious fuel during rush-hour backups. A French family scales back ambitions for an August vacation. A graphic designer in California factors the gas price into the bill for a night out. A mom in Rome, figuring the cost of driving her son to camp, mentally crosses off a pizza night.

Decisions across the world’s economy are as varied as the consumers and countries themselves: Walk more. Dust off that bicycle. Take the subway, the train or the bus. Use a lighter touch on the gas pedal to save fuel. Review that road trip — is it worth it? Or perhaps even go carless.

For the untold millions who don’t have access to adequate public transportation or otherwise can’t forgo their car, the solution is to grit their teeth and pay while cutting costs elsewhere.

Nguyen Trong Tuyen, a motorcycle taxi driver working for the Grab online ride-hailing service in Hanoi, Vietnam, said he’s been simply switching off the app during rush hour.

“If I get stuck in a traffic jam, the ride fee won’t cover the gasoline cost for the trip,” he said.

Many drivers have been halting their services like Tuyen, making it difficult for customers to book rides.

In Manila, Ronald Sibeyee used to burn 900 pesos ($16.83) worth of diesel a day to run his jeepney, a colorfully decorated vehicle popular for public transportation in the Philippines that evolved from U.S. military jeeps left behind after World War II. Now, it’s as much as 2,200 pesos ($41.40).

“That should have been our income already. Now there’s nothing, or whatever is left,” he said. His income has fallen about 40% due to the fuel price hikes.

Gasoline and diesel prices are a complex equation of the cost of crude oil, taxes, the purchasing power and wealth of individual countries, government subsidies where they exist, and the cut taken by middlemen such as refineries. Oil is priced in dollars, so if a country is an energy importer, the exchange rate plays a role — the recently weaker euro has helped push up gasoline prices in Europe.

And there’s often geopolitical factors, such as the war in Ukraine. Buyers shunning Russian barrels and Western plans to ban the country’s oil have jolted energy markets already facing tight supplies from the rapid pandemic rebound.

There’s a global oil price — around $110 a barrel — but no global pump price due to taxes and other factors. In Hong Kong and Norway, you can pay more than $10 per gallon. In Germany, it can be around $7.50 per gallon, and in France, about $8. While lower fuel taxes mean the U.S. average for a gallon of gas is somewhat cheaper at $5, it’s still the first time the price has been that high.

People in poorer countries quickly feel the stress from higher energy prices, but Europeans and Americans also are being squeezed. Americans have less access to public transport, and even Europe’s transit networks don’t reach everyone, particularly those in the countryside.

Charles Dupont, manager of a clothing store in Essonne region south of Paris, simply has to use his car to commute to work.

“I practice eco-driving, meaning driving slower and avoiding sudden braking,” he said.

Others are doing what they can to cut back. Letizia Cecinelli, filling her car at a Rome gas station, said she was biking and trying to reduce car trips “where possible.”

“But if I have a kid and I have to take him to camp? I have to do it by cutting out an extra pizza,” she said.

Pump prices can be political dynamite. U.S. President Joe Biden has pushed for Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to help bring down gas prices, deciding to travel to the kingdom next month after the Saudi-led OPEC+ alliance decided to boost production. The U.S. and other countries also have released oil from their strategic reserves, which helps but isn’t decisive.

Several countries have fuel price caps, including Hungary, where the discount doesn’t apply to foreign license plates. In Germany, the government cut taxes by 35 euro cents a liter on gasoline and 17 cents on diesel, but prices soon began to rise again.

Germany also has introduced a discounted 9-euro monthly ticket for public transportation, which led to crowded stations and trains on a recent holiday weekend. But the program only lasts for three months and is of little use to people in the countryside if there’s no train station nearby.

In fact, people are pumping just as much gas as they did before the pandemic, according to Germany’s gas station association.

“People are filling up just as much as before — they’re grumbling but they’re accepting it,” group spokesman Herbert Rabl said.

Is there any relief in sight? A lot depends on how the war in Ukraine affects global oil markets. Analysts say some Russian oil is almost certain to be lost to markets because the European Union, Russia’s biggest and closest customer, has vowed to end most purchases from Moscow within six months.

Meanwhile, India and China are buying more Russian oil. Europe will have to get its supply from somewhere else, such as Middle Eastern exporters. But OPEC+, which includes Russia, has been failing to meet its production targets.

For many, spending on things like nights out and, in Europe, the near-religious devotion to extended late summer vacations, are on the cutting table.

Isabelle Bruno, a teacher in the Paris suburbs, now takes the bus to the train station instead of making the 10-minute drive.

“My husband and I are really worried about the holidays because we used to drive our car really often while visiting our family in southern France,” she said. “We will now pay attention to train tickets and use our car only for short rides.”

Leo Theus, a graphic designer from the San Francisco Bay Area city of Hayward, has to be “strategic” in budgeting gas as he heads to meet clients — he might not fill the tank all the way. Gas prices in California are the highest in the U.S., reaching close to $7 per gallon in some parts of the state.

When it comes to going to a club or bar after work, “you’ve got to think about gas now, you got to decide, is it really worth it to go out there or not?” Theus said.

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Across the United States, historically redlined neighborhoods that scored lowest in racially discriminatory maps drawn by the government-sponsored Home-Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s had twice the density of oil and gas wells than comparable neighborhoods that scored highest. Wells likely contribute to disproportionate pollution and related health problems in redlined neighborhoods.

The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, and University of California San Francisco is published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.

Oil and gas wells expose residents to air and water pollution, noise, and other sources of stress that can increase the risk of many types of disease: cardiovascular disease, impaired lung function, anxiety, depression, preterm birth, and impaired fetal growth. An estimated 17 million Americans live within one mile of at least one active oil or gas well.

“We already know that people living in historically redlined neighborhoods have elevated risk of asthma, cardiovascular disease, preterm birth, and low birthweight. Our study helps explain one driver of these health disparities,” says first author David Gonzalez, PhD, a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley. “Racially marginalized people have disproportionately high exposure to oil and gas-related contaminants, and we’re seeing that these 80-year-old racist policies related to housing segregation and mortgage risk played a role.”

“Our study adds to the evidence that structural racism in federal policy is associated with the disproportionate siting of oil and gas wells in marginalized neighborhoods,” says senior author Joan Casey, PhD, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School. “These exposure disparities have implications for community environmental health, as the presence of active and inactive wells contribute to ongoing air pollution.”

An earlier paper by Casey found that historically redlined neighborhoods are more likely to lack green space today. Other research has linked historically red-lined neighborhoods that have persistent social inequities.

In the current study, researchers assessed exposure to oil and gas wells among HOLC-graded neighborhoods in 33 cities from 13 states where urban oil and gas wells were drilled and operated. Among the 17 cities for which 1940 census data were available, they compared neighborhoods that were similar on observed 1940 sociodemographic characteristics but that received different grades.

They found that number and density of oil and gas wells were linked to the HOLC score. These include wells in operation before and after the redlining maps were drawn. Two of the redlined neighborhoods with the most wells were Signal Hill and Wilmington, both in Los Angeles.

The researchers obtained digitized HOLC maps from the Mapping Inequality project at the University of Richmond. They obtained census-tract level sociodemographic data from the 1940 census from the National Historical Geographic Information System from Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Data on oil and gas wells dating back to 1898 were obtained from Enverus Drillinglnfo, a data aggregation service.

Over the past century, redlining has been perpetuated by both private businesses and government agencies, including the HOLC, which sought to prevent mortgage foreclosures during the Great Depression. In appraising mortgage risk, HOLC staff considered neighborhood-level characteristics that included home values, whether there were industrial facilities and the presence of racially marginalized populations such as Black people and immigrants. This study showed that redlining is linked to oil and gas well exposure, potentially explaining part of the health disparities that exist today.

Co-authors include Anthony Nardone, University of California San Francisco; Andrew Nguyen, Rachel Morello-Frosch, UC Berkeley.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Science funded the study under grant ES027023, and the California Air Resources Board under grant 18RD018.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Three checkered oil regimes that President Joe Biden and past U.S. leaders have spectacularly snubbed — Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran — are now targets of U.S. outreach as global fuel prices reach jarring levels during the Ukraine crisis.

But it’s not clear any U.S. diplomacy could get more crude oil on the market fast enough to help the current supply crunch, or tear once-shunned oil states away from what — for Saudi Arabia in particular — are profitable alliances with Russia.

For the Biden administration, the U.S. overtures to three problematic oil giants at best could lead to stabilizing rising oil and gas prices and draw those governments closer to the West and away from Russia and China. At worst, Biden risks humiliating rebuffs and condemnation for outreach to governments accused of rights abuses and violence.

“We have an interest globally in maintaining a … steady supply of energy, including through diplomatic effort,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday on the moves toward countries that have been out of U.S. or Biden administration favor, and in the case of Iran an armed threat. “We have a multiplicity of interests, and use diplomacy to try to advance them.”

The phrasing, as Russia’s war raises the stakes in many areas, was a change from Biden’s pointing, at the outset of his presidency, to democratic values as “America’s abiding advantage” in diplomacy.

Saudi Arabia has profited richly in recent years from teaming with fellow top petroleum producer Russia to keep global oil and natural gas supply modest and prices high.

And Biden came to office vowing to isolate the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and the rest of the Saudi royal family over abuses that include the 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden and the young crown prince are not known to have ever talked.

“I don’t know whether he’s up to eating that much crow,” Saudi Arabia analyst David Ottaway said of attempts now by Biden to improve his administration’s relations with Prince Mohammed and Saudi Arabia, the country that could most easily end the global supply crunch. “He was gonna make a pariah of this guy.”

As for Iran and Venezuela, the U.S. would welcome positive diplomatic outcomes that bring back oil from those nations, but “the problem is that in that situation, their negotiation power increases dramatically,” said Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president of analysis at Rystad Energy.

“So Iran will make a lot of very steep requests in order to rejoin the deal and so would Venezuela,” the energy analyst said. Plus, it could take time to ramp up their production.

Russia’s devastating military invasion of Ukraine, and resulting market disruptions and sanctions hitting Russia’s petroleum exports, helped drive the U.S. average gasoline price to $4.25 on Wednesday.

Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports the day before, compounding high prices from the OPEC production cap engineered by Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC member Russia.

The Biden administration is making cautious overtures to all three oil giants, Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In the case of Iran, administration officials are not publicly linking their diplomacy to oil, although they are pursuing a deal on Iran’s nuclear program that could see international sanctions on that country lifted and Iran’s oil quickly back on the market legally.

For Biden, failure in the high-profile oil diplomacy risks humiliating treatment from unfriendly rulers abroad, potentially re-election-damaging condemnation at home.

And success? Potentially, likewise.

“Our response to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war shouldn’t be to strengthen our relationship with the Saudis,” tweeted Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, citing Saudi Arabia’s years-long war in neighboring Yemen.

Others in Biden’s Democratic Party have made clear their objections to any abrupt U.S. embrace of Saudi Arabia and its crown prince for the sake of oil.

The GOP is scathing in its criticism of high oil prices, and any possible thaw with Iran in particular.

Effectively, said Richard Goldberg, a former National Security Council official under the Trump administration, the Biden administration is saying, “They will still be financing terrorism, but let’s go ahead and buy their oil.”

Western nations are hoping their cuts in the use of Russia’s oil can pressure Putin to stop his attack on Ukraine, though that can create other problems since nations produce different types of oil, which need different kinds of refineries.

In Venezuela, a high-level U.S. delegation visited last weekend for the first time since relations unraveled under socialist leader Hugo Chavez in the 1990s.

The trip appeared to be met receptively by President Nicolas Maduro. It was followed Tuesday by Venezuela releasing two jailed Americans.

The apparent warming raised the possibility of a lifting of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and eventual return of its oil to markets.

But even if that breakthrough occurs, Venezuela’s oil industry might not be ready to ramp up production in time to help the current price spike, after years of political turmoil and disinvestment cramped the industry.

Removing direct and secondary U.S. restrictions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, if it happens, could boost production by 400,000 barrels per day within a few months, said Paul Sheldon, chief geopolitical advisor at S&P Global Commodity Insights.

For Iran, leading countries are in the possible closing days — one way or the other — of talks with the Iranians in Vienna aimed at reimposing limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions, including those that keep Iranian oil off the market.

The Trump administration had taken the U.S. out of the nuclear deal.

Iran could supply oil quickly, and has the ability to put more than 1 million barrels per day on the market, according to energy analysts.

However, Iran’s oil is more likely to go to other buyers than the U.S. And if the U.S. allows Russia to freely trade with Tehran, it could create an opening for Moscow to “launder” oil sales through Iran, which could export the oil it might have refined and instead refine Russian oil in its place, according to Clearview Energy Partners.

Meanwhile, despite a decades-old strategic alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States, including the kingdom’s dependence on the U.S. military and U.S. weapons-makers for defense, Prince Mohammed and King Salman show no eagerness to help the Biden administration out of the jam.

Biden early on vowed to make a “pariah” out of Saudi Arabia’s ruling family over the killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul of Khashoggi. The U.S. intelligence community linked it to the crown prince.

But the oil tightening has led Biden officials to reach out more to the kingdom this year, including a Biden call to the aging king last month.

“We’re not going to separate our values and our interests,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday. “We’ve made that clear in everything we’ve done. But we’re working productively, constructively with those countries.”

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates together could tap an additional 2 million barrels per day if they chose. The United Arab Emirates said Wednesday it will urge OPEC to consider boosting oil output. But some OPEC nations may be reluctant to increase production to make up for Russian shortfalls, since alienating Russia could make it harder for OPEC to wield its influence over oil prices.

Personalities aside, “the oil alliance between Russia and Saudi Arabia has worked out pretty well,” said Ottaway, the Saudi Arabia analyst.

“It’s a difficult decision for MBS too, you know,” he added. “Both MBS and Biden are in a bind here.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday recommended an overhaul of the nation’s oil and gas leasing program to limit areas available for energy development and raise costs for oil and gas companies to drill on public land and water.

The long-awaited report by the Interior Department stops short of recommending an end to oil and gas leasing on public lands, as many environmental groups have urged. But officials said the report would lead to a more responsible leasing process that provides a better return to U.S. taxpayers.

“Our nation faces a profound climate crisis that is impacting every American,″ Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement, adding that the new report’s recommendations will mitigate worsening climate change impacts “while staying steadfast in the pursuit of environmental justice.″

The report completes a review ordered in January by President Joe Biden, who directed a pause in federal oil and gas lease sales in his first days in office, citing worries about climate change.

The moratorium drew sharp criticism from congressional Republicans and the oil industry, even as many environmentalists and Democrats said Biden should make the leasing pause permanent.

The new report seeks a middle ground that would continue the multibillion-dollar leasing program while reforming it to end what many officials consider overly favorable terms for the industry.

The report recommends hiking federal royalty rates for oil and gas drilling, which have not been raised for 100 years. The federal rate of 12.5% that developers must pay to drill on public lands is significantly lower than many states and private landowners charge for drilling leases on state or private lands.

The report also said the government should consider raising bond payments that energy companies must set aside for future cleanup before they drill new wells. Bond rates have not been increased in decades, the report said.

The Bureau of Land Management, an Interior Department agency, should focus leasing offers on areas that have moderate to high potential for oil and gas resources and are close to existing oil and gas infrastructure, the report said.

The White House declined to comment Friday, referring questions to Interior.

The federal leasing program has drawn renewed focus in recent weeks as gasoline prices have skyrocketed and Republicans complained that Biden policies, including the leasing moratorium, rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and a ban on oil leasing in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, contributed to the price spike.

Biden on Tuesday ordered a record 50 million barrels of oil released from America’s strategic reserve, aiming to bring down gas prices amid concerns about inflation. Gasoline prices are at about $3.40 a gallon, more than 50% higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. Oil prices dropped about 13% Friday as a new coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa appeared to be spreading across the globe.

The Biden administration conducted a lease sale on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico last week, after attorneys general from Republican-led states successfully sued in federal court to lift the suspension on federal oil and gas sales that Biden imposed when he took office.

Energy companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $192 million for offshore drilling rights in the Gulf, highlighting the hurdles Biden faces to reach climate goals dependent on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.

The leases will take years to develop, meaning oil companies could keep producing crude long past 2030, when Biden has set a goal to lower greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50%, compared with 2005 levels. Scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to that goal over the next decade to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Yet even as Biden has tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening efforts against global warming, including at this month’s U.N. climate talks in Scotland, he’s had difficulty gaining ground on climate issues at home.

The administration has proposed another round of oil and gas sales early next year in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and other states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.

Emissions from burning and extracting fossil fuels from public lands and waters account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Environmentalists hailed the report’s recommendation to raise royalty rates, but some groups said the report falls short of action needed to address the climate crisis.

“Today’s report is a complete failure of the climate leadership that our world desperately needs,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

The report “presumes more fossil fuel leasing that our climate can’t afford” and abandons Biden’s campaign promise to stop new oil and gas leasing on public lands, McKinnon said.

The American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying group for the oil industry, said Interior was proposing to “increase costs on American energy development with no clear roadmap for the future of federal leasing.”

Other groups were more upbeat.

“This report makes an incredibly compelling case both economically and ecologically for bringing the federal oil and gas leasing program into the 21st century,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “Enacting these overdue reforms will ensure taxpayers, communities and wildlife are no longer harmed by below-market rates, insufficient protections and poor planning.”

The wildlife federation and other groups urged the Senate to include reforms to the oil and gas program in Biden’s sweeping social and environmental policy bill. Many reforms, including a royalty rate increase and bans on drilling in the Arctic refuge and along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, were included in a House version of the bill approved last week.

Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the left-leaning Center for Western Priorities, said the report “provides a critical roadmap to ensure drilling decisions on public lands take into account (climate) impacts on our land, water and wildlife, while ensuring a fair return for taxpayers.”

Republicans said the report was a continuation of what they call Biden’s war on domestic energy production.

While the report hides behind language of “necessary reforms” and royalty rate adjustments, ”we know the real story,” said Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.

The Biden administration “will bog small energy companies down in years of regulatory gridlock, place millions of acres of resources-rich land under lock and key (and) ignore local input,” Westerman said. “Ultimately, the American consumer will pay the price. Look no further than the skyrocketing prices you are already paying at the gas pump.”

Experts say economic factors, including a slow rebound from the pandemic, are tamping down U.S. oil and gas production. As the economy recovered, production lagged and prices jumped to a seven-year high in October.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a record 50 million barrels of oil released from America’s strategic reserve, aiming to bring down gasoline and other costs, in coordination with other major energy consuming nations including India, the United Kingdom and China.

The U.S. action is focused on helping Americans coping with higher fuel and other prices ahead of Thanksgiving and winter holiday travel. Gasoline prices are at about $3.40 a gallon, more than 50% higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association.

“While our combined actions will not solve the problems of high gas prices overnight, it will make a difference,” Biden promised in remarks at the White House. “It will take time, but before long you should see the price of gas drop where you fill up your tank.”

The government will begin to move barrels into the market in mid- to late-December. Gasoline usually responds at a lag to changes in oil prices, and administration officials suggested this is one of several steps toward ultimately bringing down costs.

Oil prices had dropped in the days ahead of the announced withdrawals, a sign that investors were anticipating the moves that could bring a combined 70 million to 80 million barrels of oil onto global markets. But in trading after the announcement, prices shot up roughly 2% instead of falling.

The market was expecting the news, and traders may have been underwhelmed when they saw the details, said Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president for oil markets at Rystad Energy.

“The problem is that everybody knows that this measure is temporary,” Galimberti said. “So once it is stopped, then if demand continues to be above supply like it is right now, then you’re back to square one.”

Shortly after the U.S. announcement, India said it would release 5 million barrels from its strategic reserves. The British government confirmed it will release up to 1.5 million barrels from its stockpile. Japan and South Korea are also participating, and U.S. officials said it’s the biggest coordinated release from global strategic reserves.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, Max Blain, said it was “a sensible and measured step to support global markets” during the pandemic recovery. Blain added that the country’s companies will be authorized but not compelled to participate in the release.

Despite all the optimistic statements, the actions by the U.S. and others risk counter moves by Gulf nations, especially Saudi Arabia, and by Russia. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have made clear they intend to control supply to keep prices high for the time being.

As word spread in recent days of a coming joint release from U.S. and other countries’ reserves, there were warnings from OPEC interests that those countries may respond in turn, reneging on promises to increase supplies in coming months.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso was among Republicans who criticized Biden’s announcement. The No. 3 Senate Republican said the underlying issue is restrictions on domestic production by the administration.

“Begging OPEC and Russia to increase production and now using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are desperate attempts to address a Biden-caused disaster,” Barrasso said. “They’re not substitutes for American energy production.”

Biden has scrambled to reshape much of his economic agenda around the issue of inflation, saying that his recently passed $1 trillion infrastructure package will reduce price pressures by making it more efficient and cheaper to transport goods.

Republican lawmakers have hammered the administration for inflation hitting a 31-year high in October. The consumer price index has soared 6.2% from a year ago — the biggest 12-month jump since 1990.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an emergency stockpile to preserve access to oil in case of natural disasters, national security issues and other events. Maintained by the Energy Department, the reserves are stored in caverns created in salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts. There are roughly 605 million barrels of petroleum in the reserve.

The Biden administration argues that it is the right tool to help ease the supply problem. Americans used an average of 20.7 million barrels a day during September, according to the Energy Information Administration. That means that the release equals about two-and-a-half days of additional supply.

“Right now, I will do what needs to be done to reduce the price you pay at the pump,” Biden said at the White House.

He said the administration also is looking into potential price gouging by gas companies squeezing customers while making money off the lowered oil costs. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, too, said U.S. companies are part of the problem, keeping production below prepandemic levels in order to increase profits.

The coronavirus pandemic roiled energy markets everywhere. As it bore down and economic activity sank in April of last year, energy demand collapsed and oil futures prices turned negative. Energy traders did not want to get stuck with crude that they could not store. But as the economy recovered, production lagged and prices jumped to a seven-year high in October.

U.S. production has not recovered. Energy Information Administration figures indicate that domestic production is averaging roughly 11 million barrels daily, down from 12.8 million before the pandemic.

Americans are feeling the squeeze. For Matt Hebard of Agoura Hills, Calif., it’s taking $80 to gas up his SUV. “Gas prices are definitely on everyone’s minds right now,” he said as he filled up at a station in his suburb northwest of Los Angeles.

He hoped the president’s move has a good long-term effect.

Sy Amber, meanwhile, was en route to Las Vegas from his California home. Unhappily spending more money filling up his car, he said he didn’t expect Biden’s action to work and didn’t agree with them.

“I’m not happy with our president,” he said.

Republicans in Congress are pointing to Biden’s efforts to minimize drilling and support renewable energy as a reason for the decreased production, though there are multiple market dynamics at play as fossil fuel prices are higher around the world.

Biden and administration officials insist that tapping more oil from the reserve does not conflict with his climate goals, because this short-term fix meets a specific problem, while climate policies are a long-term answer over decades.

They argue that the administration’s push to boost renewable energy will eventually mean less dependence in the U.S. on fossil fuels. But that’s a politically convenient argument — in simple terms, higher prices reduce usage, and significantly higher gasoline prices could force Americans into less reliance on fossil fuels.

The White House decision came after weeks of diplomatic negotiations. Biden and President Xi Jinping of China talked over steps to counter tight petroleum supplies in their virtual meeting earlier this month and “discussed the importance of taking measures to address global energy supplies,” according to the White House.

The Department of Energy will make the oil available from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in two ways; 32 million barrels will be released in the next few months and will return to the reserve in the years ahead, the White House said. An additional 18 million barrels will be part of a sale of oil that Congress authorized.

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The days when oil companies could credibly deny they gouge California drivers in fairly regular cycles should now be over. Just three years ago, reports from the Consumer Watchdog advocacy group thoroughly documented how record profits for gasoline refiners like Chevron and Valero coincided with record-high pump prices throughout this state.

The quarterly profit statements for this spring are not in for the same firms and other, smaller refiners, but it’s almost certain they will once again be near or above past records. That’s because gas pump prices jumped this spring into ranges well above $4 per gallon for unleaded regular, without much visible causation.Even after prices subsided slightly in late May and early June, money continued to roll into oil company coffers.

All this still remains a mystery to some. Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state Energy Commission to investigate why California gas prices rose to levels more than $1 dollar a gallon higher than averages elsewhere in America except isolated Hawaii, where oil and
gas arrives by ocean-going tankers rather than pipelines. The preliminary conclusion: market manipulation may have played a role. You don’t say.

Some politicians regularly blame the state’s high gas taxes, which rose almost two years ago by 12 cents per gallon to help pay for highway, environmental and greenhouse-gas-related improvements. But that 12 cents doesn’t even begin to account for the far larger differential between California prices and those almost everywhere else.

Newsom’s complaint somehow makes this seem like a new problem. It’s not, but the fact of a governor investigating is new. In fact, two years ago, the state’s Petroleum Market advisory Committee found California has had a “continuous and significant unexplained differential compared to the rest of the country.” Oh, but it’s not unexplained at all. Reality is this is purely the result of price gouging by an industry that has long had California in a difficult spot.

Never mind that some so-called experts at UC Berkeley have called the entire scene a “mystery,” noting that California’s higher taxes account for no more than 70 percent of its gas price differential.

Consolidation of the refining industry into essentially three corporate hands – Chevron, Valero and Phillips 66 – has allowed the companies to keep this state’s reserve stocks lower than anywhere else in the lower 48 states.

As far back as six years ago, Consumer Watchdog reported that the rest of the continental U.S. has about 24 days supply of gasoline on hand at any given time, while California averages between 10 days and 13 days. Shorter reserves mean that anytime there’s even a slight glitch, the refiners can claim an impending shortage and raise their prices. A refinery fire that’s put out quickly, with repairs made within a few days, can therefore cause price increases to reverberate for months.

Said Consumer Watchdog, “It’s happened before and will happen again and again because the California refinery owners can make more money by making less gasoline.”

How long do these things last? In 2015, a refinery blaze in a Torrance refinery sent prices upward. They never reverted to pre-fire levels, despite reconstruction and repairs.

Now Newsom has ordered the Energy Commission to investigate possible “inappropriate industry practices.” That’s a very appropriate demand of that commission. The question: Will Newsom let his order be either ignored or procrastinated on, with inaction the result?

Yes, whenever gas prices skyrocket, the Western States Petroleum Association invariably says it’s a one-off event and that “dynamics of supply and demand are responsible…” That last part is certainly true… but it leaves out the fact that the refiners control gasoline supply, while demand is very predictable, seasonal travel habits a major part of the picture.

At UC Berkeley, they call the extra money collected during gasoline price surges an “unexplained surcharge.” But the explanation has been clear for years, even if state authorities are just beginning to realize it: This is the result of oil company manipulation and profiteering.

One thing California plainly needs: a new law forcing disclosure of all California refiners’ profits, with complete transparency the goal. If the Legislature won’t create such a law, the people should, via a ballot initiative.

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