The Biden administration was not startled by the US crude output, until Washington caused a global crisis in oil prices by sanctioning Russia while also banning Russian energy imports. 

The green agenda, advocated by the Democrats, was pushed aside with the increase of gas prices in the US. 

Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, chastised US oil companies for their hesitance to invest in new drilling projects for more oil extraction - instead, they focused on reaping profits from oil, which has reached record-high prices.

"The oil and gas industry right now is receiving profit — windfall profits; we’ve seen that. They publicly report their profits […] And instead of keeping up with present demand, too many of these companies, in our view, are making the calculated decision of returning money to investors and shareholders through buybacks and dividends, instead of expanding production enough in the short term, which is what we need."

Psaki pointed to at least three US oil companies that asserted that they will not increase their extraction rates, and will use extra profits to pay dividends to their shareholders. 

During his election campaign, US President Joe Biden promised to transition to green-energy resources, and has called on US oil businesses to extract more oil to replace Russian oil in the international market. 

Because Biden's administration was not able to get companies to extract more oil, Biden as an alternative authorized the opening of the US strategic reserves to compensate for the shortage as prices increased.