Biden's top economic advisor states that reviving the Keystone XL pipeline at present will not decrease oil prices.

• On Friday, CNBC reported that President Biden's top economic advisor stated the administration's focus on implementing policies aimed at providing prompt relief to high oil prices.
• According to NEC Director Brian Deese, the White House is not reconsidering its decision to scrap the Keystone XL pipeline.
• According to Deese, any action taken on Keystone would not increase supply and would transmit oil for years to come.

On Friday, President Joe Biden's top economic advisor stated that the White House is not reconsidering its decision to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline, despite the rise in crude and gasoline prices.

The Biden administration is focusing on implementing policies and strategies to reduce fuel prices quickly, as stated by National Economic Council Director Brian Deese on CNBC. He highlighted President Biden's decision to release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next six months.

According to Deese, any action taken on Keystone would not increase supply and would transmit oil for years to come, as stated in a "Squawk on the Street" interview.

Currently, our focus is on what we can accomplish immediately, and we aim to bring back online the wells that have been shut down in the next few months. However, we must first address the immediate disruption in supply.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused a supply shock in global oil markets, which were already tight due to the recovery of demand from the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, crude oil prices have reached record highs, leading to an increase in gasoline prices.

After invading neighboring Ukraine, Russia, a major energy exporter, has been hit with sanctions from the U.S. and the U.K., which have banned Russian oil imports as a form of punishment.

Although oil prices have decreased from their March highs, they are still up significantly this year, contributing to inflationary pressures in the economy. The U.S. oil benchmark, Brent, traded at around $100 per barrel on Friday, up 35% in 2022. Meanwhile, the international benchmark, WTI, hovered around $104 per barrel.

Some Republicans have urged Biden to grant permits for Keystone XL, a 1,200-mile oil pipeline from Canada to American refineries, as oil prices have increased recently.

On his first day in office, Biden revoked the permit for the construction of the pipeline. In June 2021, the company that owned it officially abandoned the $9 billion oil pipeline, which had been proposed in 2008 but faced numerous delays due to legal challenges from environmentalists and Native American tribes.

The Biden administration aims to increase oil production from the 9,000 drilling permits already approved on federal land, as stated by Deese. To achieve this, Biden has proposed fees on companies that are not utilizing wells from their leases on public acreage.

"The short-term priority is to bring in million barrels of day by focusing on wells that can come back on, not getting bogged down in long-term debates about other questions," Deese stated.