months. the move underscores white house concern about rising gas prices and supply shortages. following russia's invasion of ukraine a month the white house calls the move unprecedented and says it will provide a historic amount of supply to serve as a bridge until the end of the year , when domestic production ramps up. we will hear more about this later this hour when president biden speaks from the white house. in other news from washington, the biden administration says it will use cold war powers to boost domestic production of materials from batteries needed to power electric vehicles and the transition to renewable energy. the decision as materials including lithium and graphite to a list of covered items by the 1950 fence production act. it is the same authority used by former president donald trump to spur mass production to tackle the pandemic, and president harry truman, to make steel during the career more -- the

korean war. imran con says he will face a no-confidence vote after days of speculation over the timing of the move. in a televised address he said he will "fight to the last. there have been reports that the opposition has garnered the need -- the numbers it needs to oust khan, as the country grapples with high inflation and debt repayments. shanghai will lift its lockdown of the eastern half of the city friday as scheduled, but certain compounds will continue to be sealed off because of covid infections. the announ comes as the western part of the city of 25 million residents is authorities are trying to curtail an out that has brought unprecedented disruptions to the financial hub. global news 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries.

i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. >> 1:00 p.m. in new york, 1:00 a.m. in hong kong, i'm romaine bostick in for matt miller. you're the top stories we are following for you from around the world. u.s. stocks tumbling for the first losing quarters since the onset of the pandemic. 22 month bull run that saw the s&p double in value now being hamstrung from concern about rising interest rates and commodity prices. president biden vowing to take steps to rein in those energy prices, announcing a record release from the u.s. petroleum reserves. we are going to bring you his remarks a little bit later in the hour. usain bolt, who set so many records in the physical world, now has a new venture. it is e-sports. he is going to talk about his new venture called wild, and his

commitment to diversity and sports. all of that coming up later, but we do want to check on the markets as they are stumbling here on this final day of march, final day of the quarter here. it has been a pretty stellar march. five percent gain on the s&p 500, but not nearly enough to recoup the losses he saw in january and february. in fact, this is setting us up for the worst quarterly loss for the s&p 500 since the first quarter of 2020. we talk about this being a global selloff, not just here, in the united states, but you talk about the cac down. the dax down 11%. chinese stocks down about 14%. a lot of this ties into the commodity space. in crude sitting at $107 per barrel. it started the year at less than $80 a barrel, and at one point we spiked as high as $139. one of the highest spikes we

have seen going back to 2020. you are looking at one of the biggest moves we have seen for the broader commodity space on a quarterly basis going back to 1990. 2.3% on your two year yield. a little more than a your so ago we were at about 1/10 of 8 -- .1%. let's get to our first market conversation of the hour. kevin holt over at invesco joining us right now to talk a little bit more, maybe where we are going to end up, kevin, here. a lot of people look back at the last two or three months, there was a lot of fear baked into this market, concern about the rising rate environment, and the war in ukraine. with a little bit more certainty about where things are going to go, with the perception of certainty, you anticipate that the tap of selloff we saw earlier this year, that that may be behind us for good? kevin: yeah, there is a lot of volatility, so i think everything is on the board right now. fed is raising rates at a point we have not seen, frankly,

across our investment lives. so, that is going to put pressure on multiples. i think it is going to make the markets challenging, it is going to make them choppy, which is going to create a lot of opportunity, but you have to be careful where you are investing. romaine: there has been so much talk about the inflationary pressures out there. some of them, obviously, baked into the commodity space. others are sort of disconnected from that. you know the fed is trying to do its part in fighting inflation and the biden administration is going to do whatever he can do from its end here. how much does the inflationary picture right now factor into your portfolio positioning? kevin: you know, we are long-term investors. my fund in particular is a five to seven year time horizon. with that said, we have been in a sustained period of probably low moderate inflation, which is changing. we really have not experienced this type of inflation since the

70's. arguably we have not experienced brought inflation in terms of food commodity prices, and roles, and oil and gas, maybe since the late 1940's. we are having to do a little history here to figure out, this is a different playbook than the last 10 years. romaine: when you think about the opportunities for investing, individual sectors, individual stocks, there was a narrative a few months ago where it was all about the cyclical names, names that would benefit from a reopening of our economy, and some persistent trends with regard to consumer spending here. you still buy into that narrative, and if not, would you go? kevin: i think there is -- there are really two ways to look at this. since the goebel financial crisis, cyclical stocks have underperformed dramatically. although it -- although they have done well the last 18 months, they still underperformed the market substantially over the last three and five years, particularly. there is still upside.

do we like energy still? yeah, we like energy. the opportunity set is not as attractive, but it is still attractive relative to the market. areas that got dislocated doing covert, such as health care and consumer staples, where people were looking for more growth, looking for coming out of the pandemic, think some of those areas and stocks have been forgotten about. they had some challenges because of commodity prices and utilization within hospitals within some of the medical device and product companies. think there are opportunities and we have found opportunities in those areas too. have some cyclicals, but we have some balance, in less volatile areas of the market that are less extensive. romaine: how weak are some of these companies going to be in being able to shoulder their own costs, whether it is labor costs, and put costs, whatnot? whether it is absorbing it on their own or passing it on to their end consumers and clients? kevin: that is where we spend a

lot of our time. it comes down to, what is your ability for pricing power? no within the energy space they have quite a bit of pricing power. that is an industry where we have a lot of underinvestment. it is our belief that oil prices were heading higher regardless of what happened with russia-ukraine because of the underinvestment. you have to ask yourself in other areas of the market -- health care, which is something we need -- there will be pricing power. you really do need to look in areas of the market that have the power, because this inflation is here to stay, at least for the next five years. romaine: when you look at the energy space and talk about opportunities there, are you still focused on, i guess, some of the more traditional energy companies? the ones that are much more tied to fossil fuels? are you looking into some of the more renewable energy type of names? kevin: i think at this point we are primarily focused on the traditional energy companies.

our dialogue with traditional energy companies has been, we are going to be oil for probably the next one to 30 years as we proceed to this transition. they need to take seriously the omissions, scope one, and scope two. i consider it table stakes for them to continue to have our investment dollars, and i think they know that. but the reality is, we have underinvested. we are going to need oil for a sustained. -- a sustained period of time. stocks are very inexpensive, and for the first time in probably my investment career management teams are being compensated on doing the right things for shareholders in a world where demand grows 1% over the last 30 years there is no reason anybody needs to produce oil at a 10% to 15% romaine: all right, kevin, always great to catch up with you. kevin holt with invesco helping us kick off our discussion. we are going to continue our discussion about the energy space, particularly oil. oil higher, 40% on the air, and

that is a reason the president is trying to do anything to tamp down prices. you're going to talk more about the historic drawdown out of the strategic petroleum reserve, and we are expecting comments later from the president himself. we will bring those live when they happen. this is bill burck. ♪

romaine: this is bloomberg markets. i am romaine bostick. the big story of the day is oil prices. a big announcement by the biden administration about the release of about one million barrels of oil per day from the u.s. strategic petroleum reserves over the next six months. micron attempt to tamp down not just oil prices, but gasoline prices as well. let's bring in julia fans arrows to talk about this. i have to mention gasoline, because that is ultimately what the administration is targeting here. the idea that most people are paying about double what they were a year and a half ago. how does a one million barrel a day release from the reserves, if at all, affect those types of prices? jonathan: that is a great -- julia: that is a great question. it is going to take at least

three weeks for any sign to be made at the pump. people are wondering, this is just crude. that is not the real -- that is not the same as releasing gas. we also have to look at, do refineries have the capacity to ramp up all of that crew to check on it will make a difference, but you have to realize various reasons why gasoline is going up. one is because it is going to be summer season. people are going to be driving. it is political that biden is trying to add this crude while gasoline prices are high. romaine: it should be pointed out, he did see a significant reaction in the markets to this. crude oil has been under pressure. it is down about 5% in new york trading. is that directly tied to this announcement or are there other factors driving this? julia: you can see the direct correlation when the announcement came out. crude crashed. but throughout this session it has actually pared some of those losses. that is because traders are wondering, well, is this going

to make it big deal, enough of a deal to replace russian exports that are no longer in the market? it did make a huge reaction. romaine: we are expecting to hear from the president later this hour, hopefully to get more details as did the strategy behind this. is there another component to this, earning an expansion of output, not just releasing what we have? julia: what was interesting about the release is that the white house says they want congress to tax drillers who are not using wells. that they are not taking advantage of this. will this pass in congress? don't know. it is having that message of u.s. producers should be drilling more. romaine: we talk about energy policy there is a lot of criticism that there really has not been a cohesive energy policy, particularly when it comes to fossil fuels. it is kind of, let the companies do it they do and hope for the best. when you talk to your sources, is there any since they anticipate there will be a more cohesive policy?

julia: my sources are saying that shayla companies and oil companies are upset the biden administration is calling on them after they have had this strong energy policy. -- green energy policy. i don't see this coming together, because they are touting green energy, but also saying these companies are going to be taxed if they do not drill more. cohesive, i'm not sure about that. romaine: something to keep an eye here. do bti down about 5 -- wti down about 5% on the day. julia fanzeres giving us that update. we are still waiting to hear from the president on this topic. in the meantime, it's get youtube bloomberg business flash. we are going to start off with mortgage rates. here in the u.s. they are soaring again. they are now the highest since december 2018. this, according to freddie mac. the average for a 30 year loan -- 4.67%. it is up .25% from last week.

rising home prices are still shutting people out of the market. occidental petroleum, the best performer in the s&p 500 in the first quarter. shares doubled this quarter thanks to rising oil prices and a big boost from the world investor. shares jumped when berkshire hathaway revealed it has increased its stake in occidental. walgreens alliance posting second quarter profits. he was better than expected. the credit goes to heightened demand for covid vaccine. all greens maintained its forecast for the year. nevertheless, it has been under pressure because of concerns about the long-term. that is your business flash update. still ahead, we are going to talk to the real flash in the flesh. usain bolt, fastest man in the world, he has a new venture. he is a co-owner of a global e-sports brand. he will be talking about that next. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: this is bloomberg -- romaine: this is bloomberg markets. romaine bostick in for matt miller. it has been a quarter here for u.s. equities. the s&p 500, right now back below 4600. started off the year strong. a record high on january 3. but it has been downhill ever since. a bid coming back into this market over the last couple of weeks, but not enough to erase the losses we saw in january and february. the s&p 500 now headed toward its first quarterly loss since the first quarter of 2020, of course with the onset of the pandemic. of course, keep an eye on what is going on in the oil space. brent crude continues to trend down, but still well elevated

from where was a few months ago as people begin to talk about u.s. energy policy, and the response to what is going on globally. how do you tamp down those prices? we are waiting to hear from president biden little bit later here. as we wait on him we want to get some insight from our next guest want to bring in rebecca babich. -- rebecca babin. was good to talk to you, particularly on a day like today, were a lot of us are scratching our heads, trying to figure out, how does one million barrels of day -- million barrels a day of oil depress oil prices, and more importantly, how does it depress gas prices? rebecca: i think that is the right question. the answer is, it doesn't. what it does is, it removes that outsized tail event where we get a spike to $150 in summer driving season, but it does not actually meaningfully move prices lower over the short and medium-term. why?

because it does not offset what we are losing from russia, potentially. it also sends three very important signals to the markets that are bullish. one, russia-ukraine is going to last longer than we thought, so those barrels are going to be off longer than anticipated. two, the ironic deal -- iran deal not likely to come to fruition. three, opec-plus not listening to us. it is very reluctant to add barrels back to the market, and that is not a policy i think they are going to shift in the near term. four, and actually disincentivizes production. it actually is somewhat of a bullish signal for the commodities we are seeing, and i don't think it provides that relief you are expecting, but it does remove a tail. romaine: i want to ask you about the production side. we have been hearing conflicting reports about whether the biden demonstration has approached energy companies about potentially increasing production here.

i'm wondering, as we stand right now with what we know to be true here, why have we not seen an uptick in production? rebecca: that is a tricky one. i would say comes down to a couple of things. the price volatility we have seen in crude has been extreme. producers do not like to take on additional risk and produce more when the volatility is so high they cannot see the line of sight of how their profitability is going to look as they start increasing production. the volatility in terms of the producer's mojo to produce more. secondly, the biden administration has not been -- although they may have approached some companies -- most of their actions have been actually kind of hostile to producers, whether it is the leasing aspect we are hearing today, that, use it or lose it on the leases, or their general demeanor toward the u.s. energy producers has not been a cohesion. it has been more of a driving

apart of that relationship. i think u.s. producers are taking that in stride and saying i'm i don't want to put myself or my company at risk after i dug myself out of higher leverage in previous cycles, for someone who might end up pulling the rug out from under me in six months and we get a massive move lower just as my crew comes out of the ground. romaine: that is the supply side. what does the demand side look like? is it still healthy? rebecca: so, it is healthy, though i will tell you there was one thing i am watching. that is the u.s. miles driven over the last four weeks has been slowly declining. this is a period of time where we should start to see that pickup. we are heading into summer driving season. i'm saying this is where we need to be watching. be higher prices are starting to take away that robust demand profile we have been riding the back of the last six months. i am really focused on that, and

the real thing that could cause us to sell off is if we do not get the huge increase in demand over summer driving season because of prices. the data right now is softening. romaine: always smart, always wonderful to have you. rebecca babin of cibc. we say goodbye to her and we are going to turn to our next guest and turn to usain bolt, of course the legendary sprinter. gold medals and a lot of world championships. now he is the owner of the e-sports company wild. what is wild, and why are you involved? >> wild is an e-sports gaming company. all my life i have been gaming and have loved video games all my life. the moment i got to be a part of this company was massive. david, -- david approached me and was like, i would love to be a part of this, so i got into it. romaine: talk to us a little bit

about the market for this. a few years ago when we started to hear about e-sports, at least certain older people like myself scratched their head and wondered, or this a thing? then we saw these stadiums packed with people to watch, whether it is league of legends or some of these other things, you are involved with fifa, ballard, rocket league are part of wilds? is that true? usain: e-sports is becoming one of the biggest things right now. you know what i mean? they are projected to have over one billion viewers in the next three years, so they are really working. with me, personally, just playing games and seeing, if you watch people online, drake was always streaming online. it has become something really big, and it is going to continue growing in the years to come. romaine: what about the investment here? the money backing this here? what has been put behind this and what do you guys plan to invest further, if at all?

usain: definitely. we are definitely getting investors. that is a key thing. wild is a new company, it is a new game, so for me it will take time, but we will get investors. we are working with a few -- ubisoft right now, riot. we are looking to get more people on board to continue pushing it. romaine: i have to get your perspective here on some other issues, particularly when it comes to diversity in this realm and sports overall. i know that is something you have been working on closely here. how much progress are remaking? usain: we are all about diversity, you know what i mean? in gaming, anybody can do it during -- do it. we all love gaming around the world. for me the key thing is to diversify what we're doing to let everybody know that that is what it is all about. give everybody a chance to

express themselves and that is the focus, and we are trying to get as much people, matter what gender, to be a part of this and enjoy it. romaine: let's talk about real sports too. hopefully we are at the tail end of this covered pandemic. a lot of sports leagues have restarted, allowing fans back into the stadium. i assume this has to be exciting for someone like you coming off of two years were a lot of us were not able to see sports, at least not live in person. usain: it is massive. i think the stadiums can be full again. now the question is, if i could compete -- that would've been very hard for me. i'm happy to see that the pandemic is coming to an end in the world is opening up and giving people opportunities now, you know? especially kids going back to school. i think face-to-face is very important. romaine: i really appreciate you

taking the time to be with us. this is usain bolt. he is now the co-owner of the e-sports company wylde. and still a world record holder in a couple of different events there. let's get a quick check of where we stand on the market. the s&p 500, right around the lows of the day as we close out the month, close out the quarter. the are higher on the month about 5%, but down on the quarter. that is the story for all of the major indices. a big part of that story has to do with the last two lines on your screen, what has been happening on the commodity space. and of course, the big search we saw in the treasury space with regard to yields. 2.3% on a two year yield. a 150 basis point jump in the last quarter alone. from new york, this is bloomberg. mark: welcome to the bnn bloomberg audience. time mark crumpton. russia will gas applies to buyers from what it calls unfriendly states tomorrow

unless they comply with its demand that payments be made in rubles. in a televised address today vladimir putin said buyers will need to open ruble accounts in russian banks if they want russian gas. he says the ruble payments are an important step in strengthening russia's financial situation. nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg said russia is not keeping his promise to scale back near the cities of kyiv and chennai have. speaking in brussels today, stilton bird said moscow was trying to regroup in the

donbass region, while maintaining pressure on kyiv and other cities. stoltenberg said nato still stands with ukraine. >> we need to continue to supply weapons to ukraine, nato allies will continue to provide weapons to ukraine as long as necessary. this is extremely important, because ukraine is fighting a war for freedom, for democracy, for our shared values. romaine: ukraine says negotiations with russia on a cease fire could resume virtually tomorrow. that would pick up on face-to-face discussions in turkey this week. the u.s. justice department is expanding its investigation into last year's riot at the u.s. capitol to look into the rally that came before the attack on january 6, 2021. the washington post reports a federal grand jury has issued subpoena requests to people close to palmer president trump, who helped with planning, funding, and pulling off rally outside the white house. global news 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg.

jon: welcome to bloomberg markets. romaine: i'm romaine bostick. your other top stories we are following for you from around the world. president biden set to make an announcement about a historic drawdown from the u.s. petroleum reserves, releasing roughly one million of euros of oil a day for the next six months. we will talk to you about the impact and bring you his remarks live. we are keeping an eye on congress. a vote on federal legislation of marijuana. we are going to take to the ceo on what it could mean for the future of the cannabis industry, assuming it makes it through congress to the president's desk. and of the biggest decliners today, walgreens alliance taking a tumble as demand for covid vaccines and testing leaves its outlook unchanged. a deeper dive in that and so much more coming up, jon. jon: let's start with a check on what is happening with the major averages as we wrap up the first quarter of trading.

we have a bit of a mixed picture and camera -- in canada. a little bit of selling for the s&p as we wrap up what has been the first down quarter in a couple of years. we saw that nice rally off lows recently for the s&p 500, but a bit of kosice -- bit of cautious trading today. the oil spike we have seen in the face of all of those big details out of washington, and we are awaiting president biden to speak on energy prices after this announced of u.s. releasing roughly one million barrels of oil a day from its reserves. we are going to bring you those remarks live, first we want to get some more perspective on the energy story. rebecca babin, senior energy trader at cibc. as the world has been reacting to this development out of washington, maybe you can recap for us what, generally speaking, your reaction was to this? rebecca: my initial reaction is,

wow, that is a lot of crude. it is something the administration has not done. this is an unprecedented number, 100 80 million barrels. my second reaction is, wow, we are really struggling to find supply from the other sources we were hoping were going to fill in russian supply disruption. that was iran, potentially opec-plus, potentially increases from u.s. production. so although the initial reaction is that is significant and meaningful, the kind of secondary reaction is a little bit less impactful, and i think leads to a positive signal over the medium term. the way you see that his, if you look at where january 2023 through the summer of 2023 in trading, those contracts are trading higher, which tells you although this provides short-term relief to the commodity, it is actually medium-term elation. that is why you see u.s. energy

equities outperforming today and up on the day. they are highly levered to that back end of the curve. romaine: to put this in perspective, we are talking about 180 million barrels released in total. that is the pledge. avis a sense of where we stand with the capacity or current size of our strategic petroleum reserve. this might be a dumb question, but why release this over the course of several days, over the course of several months, i should say, instead of releasing it in a bigger batch all at once? rebecca: the strategic petroleum reserves has about 560 million barrels in the u.s.. it is larger, globally. i think it is closer to one billion. this will bring, once we subtract 180 million barrels out of it, bring us to 160 million barrels in the u.s. strategic petroleum reserves, just the lowest since 1984. a key detail we are going to look for is how they are going to replenish the spr. when they are going to do it.

there are rumors they are going to start buying crude below $100. they need to refill those strategic reserves. as to your second question, which i don't remember at the moment, in terms of how this plays out over the longer term i think we continue -- oh, why overtime? i think the logistics is what it plays into that. you cannot push more than maybe one million barrels out into the market a day logistically of crude. they need to siphon this out over time. we just don't have the infrastructure to support larger amounts in a shorter period of time. that is why is -- it is coming over this long period. jon: watch the mechanics of that, rebecca. the fact we are getting this news on a day where clearly the messaging from opec and allies is that they are going to continue at their own pace, and given that, clearly the president wants to send a message and is hoping that there can be some global or -- global coordination, perhaps with other

countries, encouraging them to do more production right now. what is your sins on the appetite globally for that? just checking all of the different countries that are producing and how they will receive this message from washington? rebecca: i think they will receive this as this sensitization to increase production. this is not something that is a big factor. it is not something that is going to inspire others to bring back or increase production, because you have strategic reserves being used the buffer lower prices. this is not necessarily the right choice for inspiring other countries to increase production. as a relates to opec-plus bus -- opec-plus specifically, i think in underscores the difficulties the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia is having. were not able to engage them in our conversation to bring back

additional production, which is why we had to resort to using the reserves. i don't think they are going to change course unless a couple of significant things happen, and i think the first is the iran talks officially and and we do not have an agreement, and secondly, if the u.s. chooses to provide additional defense to saudi arabia and uae against hoopty attacks. those are big -- houthi attacks. i don't see that happening in the near term. romaine: we know there were discussions with the venezuelans, we also know there has been talk about what could potentially happen if the war in ukraine is resolved. we see a return to the market, to the legitimate market of russian group? -- russian crude? rebecca: venezuelan crude did surface as a potential a couple of weeks back. i think the reality of that is, there infrastructure is pretty

old and not necessarily going to provide us with near-term relief. secondly, we don't have assurances in terms of what is happening there socially, that this would be a good choice. we have two factors there. one, practically they can only bring 300,000 to 400,000 barrels back immediately. secondly, do we really want to push a social agenda and enrich someone who we do not think has the right kind of agenda in front of them? as it relates to looking for other sources of production, we are looking for several other places -- the u.s. obviously being the primary one to ramp back up -- but, again, none of those are short term. we do not have a silver bullet for that production gap from russia. if russia-ukraine is resolved, i still think we see buyers shun russian oil for a long period of time. i don't think that is going to

be a quickly-resolved issue. romaine: we're going to have to leave it there. always wonderful to catch up. rebecca babin of cibc private wealth management. we are awaiting comments from the president of the united states. we will bring them to you live. in the meantime, we want to take a look at what else is going on. walgreens, shares sliding after demand for covid vaccines and testing cools. it is our stock of the hour and it is coming up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

romaine: this is "bloomberg markets." time now for our stock of the hour. we are taking a look at walgreens. the company reporting quarterly

results that beat estimates, but revealing a problem with its prescription business. abigail doolittle joining us with more. shares down 5% now. is this about the forecast? abigail: i think it largely has to do with the forecast. the stock over the last year, down --, down 15%. what really seems to be weighing on the stock is exactly prescription drugs relative to covid. having to do with the testing and vaccines. in the second quarter vaccines really showing that, actually, down in a big way from their fiscal first quarter. that has something to do with inflation. i was in walgreens yesterday and for the first time in recent money -- recent memory i only went in and got the one thing i was looking for. it was a very budget-conscious situation. i think that could be something even though they are not talking about that. jon: there is that day-to-day reality, then, of course, there

is the desire to make bigger moves deeper into health care. bloomberg intelligence team is talking about just the time it will take to continue to make inroads there and the investments. they seem to be balancing both of those aspects of their business. abigail: and it is a tricky business, because as we are looking at, the u.s. pharmaceuticals down 7.3% in the recent quarter. in terms of reimbursement from insurers, has been a big problem for this sector for a long time. there is a lot of tricky aspects this company is managing. something to keep in mind, though, and i would not have thought this was the case, they did have the covid pop. down 15% over the last year, but since this company has been a publicly traded company going back to 1980 it is up 16,000%. one of the cleaner charts i have seen over the long-term. so even though there is a stumble here, i don't know if it is fair to call flat guidance a stumble. they just didn't bring it up,

but the fact they had this big beat for the current quarter and didn't bring it up, i guess that is being seen as a miss. over the longer term this company seems to be doing just fine. but challenges in the near term. jon: really helpful context, abigail. abigail doolittle with the story of walgreens. coming up, could marijuana be decriminalized by the end of this year? irwin simon runs a major player in that market. he is the ceo. he will join us next. this is bloomberg. ♪

romaine: let's listen in here to the president of the united states on his moves to tamp down energy prices. pres. biden: he is causing thousands of deaths and untold destruction. working with our nato allies and european partners and beyond that, we are responding we are aiding the ukrainian people with both economic and militarily,

while leaving the most punishing economic sanctions against russia ever used against another nation in place, and increasing them. thus far these actions are crippling russia's economy, isolating putin in the world, and helping ukrainians fight for their country, and ease their suffering. it is i have said from the start, putin's war is imposing a cost on america and our allies and moccasins around the world. today i want to talk about one aspect of putin's war that affects and has real effects on the american people. putin's price hike in americans and our allies are feeling at the pump. i know how much it hurts. as you have heard me say before, i grew up in a family like many of you, where when the price of gas went up it was a discussion at the creek -- at the kitchen table. your family budgets to fill a tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war. today i am laying out a two-part

plan. not only to ease the pain that families are feeling, but to end this era of dependence and uncertainty, and lay a foundation for lasting energy independence. parenthetically, just imagine if, in fact, europe did not have to count on russian oil. if they were energy independent. it would change the nature of so much. the problem we are facing with gas prices has two routes. first, the pandemic. when covid struck, demand for oil plummeted. so, production slowed down worldwide. because of the strength and speed of our recovery, demand for oil shot back up much faster than the supply. that is why the cost of gas began to rise last year. the second route is vladimir putin. at the start of this year gas was about $3.30 a gallon. today it is about averaging

$4.20, and is higher in many states. nearly a dollar more in less than three months. the reason for that is because of putin's war. and now many people are no longer buying russian oil around the world. i band the russian import of oil here, in america. republicans and democrats in congress called for it and supported it. it was the right thing to do, what i said at the time, it is going to come with a cost. as russian oil comes off the global market, the supply of oil drops and prices are rising. now putin's price hike is hitting americans at the pump. which brings me to the first part of my plan. to immediately increase the supply of oil, our prices are rising because of putin's actions. there is not enough supply. in the bottom line is, if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now. u.s. oil companies that are recording their largest profits in years, they have a choice.

one, they can put those profits to productive use producing more oil, restarting idle wells, or producing on the sites they are already leasing, giving the american people a break by passing some of the savings onto their customers and lowering the price at the pump. war they can, as some are doing, exploit the situation, sit back, shipped those profits to investors, and while american families struggle to make ends meet. look, this is a moment of consequence in peril for the world. and pain at the pump for american families. it is also a moment of patriotism. i want to acknowledge those companies that have already announced they are increasing immediate production. they are investing money to produce more oil. and also, clean technology we need to reduce dependence on oil in the future. they have everything they need. nothing is standing in their way, and they have indicated they will be producing an extra

one million barrels of oil per day, probably starting as early as this fall. that is progress. some companies have been pretty blonde. they do not want to increase supply because putin's price hike means higher profits. on ceo acknowledge they do not care if the price of a barrel of oil goes to $200 a barrel. they are not going to step up production. i say enough. enough of lavishing excessive profits on investors and payouts and buybacks when the american people are watching. the world is watching. uso accompanies made nearly $80 billion in profit last year. those profits are expected to continue to soar. this is not the time to set on record profits. it is time to step up for the good of your country, for the good of the world. to invest in the immediate production we need to respond to vladimir putin. provide some relief for your

customers, not investors and executives. look, i am a capitalist. i have no problem with corporations turning a profit. the companies have an obligation that goes beyond their shareholders, to the customers, communities, and country. no american companies should take advantage of a pandemic or vladimir putin's actions to enrich themselves at the expense of the -- at the expense of american families. invest in your customers. it is not just a patriotic view, it is good for your business as well. right now oil and gas industries are sitting on nearly 9000 unused but approved permits for production on federal lands. for more than one million unused acres they have a right to pump on. families cannot afford to let companies sit on these with their hands. so, to help execute this first part of my plan i'm calling for a use it or lose it policy.

congress should make companies pay fees on wells on federal leases they have not used in years. and takers of public land are hoarding without production. companies already producing from these wells will not be affected. but those sitting on unused leases and idle wells will either have to be producing or pay the price for their inaction. look, the action i'm calling for will make a real difference over time. the truth is, it takes months, not days, for companies to increase production. that is why the next part of my plan is so important. today i'm authorizing the release of one million barrels per day for the next six months. over 180 million barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve. this is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year. and it is by far the largest release of our national reserve in our history. it will provide a historic

amount of supply for a historic amount of time, a sixth-munch -- a six-month bridge. we will use the revenue from selling the oil now to restock the strategic petroleum reserve and prices are lower. so, we will be ready. we will be ready for future emergencies. folks, i have coordinated this release with allies and partners around the world. already we have commitments from other countries to release tens of millions of additional barrels into the market. together our combined efforts will supply well over one million barrels a day. nations coming together to deny putin the ability to weaponize his energy resources against families and democracies around the world. now, for the first part of my plan, it is about meeting an immediate crisis. the second part is about declaring real american energy and appearance -- independence for the long-term, so we never have to deal with this problem again.

we in the whole world need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels altogether. we need to choose long-term security over energy and climate vulnerability. we need to double down on our commitment to clean energy and tackling the climate crisis that our partners and allies around the world. and we can do that. bypassing my plan literally before the senate right now the united states congress right now, it has been there for well over a month, dispute the transition to clean energy future. that is made in america, with american products and american values. we need to embrace all of the tools and technologies that can help for gas from our dependence on fossil fuels. the bus toward a more homegrown, clean energy. technologies made by american companies and american workers. so we can bolster democratic supply -- excuse me, the mystic supply chains here at home and export those technologies around the world to reduce greenhouse gases.

that is why today i'm issuing a directive to strengthen our clean energy economy. i'm going to use the defense production act to secure american supply chains for the critical materials go into batteries for electric vehicles and the storage of renewable energy. lithium, graphite, nickel, so much more. need to end our reliance on china and other countries for inputs that will power the future. i will use every tool i have to make that happen. yes, building a made in america clean energy future will help safeguard our national security. yes, it will help us tackle climate change. yes, it is going to ensure that americans have millions of good paying jobs for years to come. the most important thing my plan will do right away is save your family money. here is what i mean. under my plan, which is before the congress now, we can take advantage of the next generation of electric vehicles that a typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to

if your home is powered by cleaner and safer electricity like solar heat pumps, you can save $500 a month on average. the ceos of america's largest utility companies came to see me at the white house. they told me if we passed my plan, the typical family would see savings and their utility bills immediately. costs will come down even more as we innovate cutting edge storing technologies, carbon capture and sequestration technologies. and by the way, this week's benefit i included in the infrastructure law to help families weatherize their homes are being delivered. my administration is making $3.2 billion available from this legislation to provide up to

$6,500 direct payments to working-class families to weatherize their homes, to save their money, keep them warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. it is a direct grant. the program has been a -- has been around for a while. now we have been building to reach as many as 10 times as many families. in addition to that, we are also setting new standards to boost fuel economy for new vehicles sold in america. within five years, we are going to travel 10 miles more on every single gallon we have because the average fuel economy of 49 miles a gallon will be required. that means hundreds of dollars of savings for families at the pump. we are sending similar standards for families for appliances from your air conditioner to your