To try and give drivers some relief at the pump the Biden administration announced it's releasing one million barrels of oil. 

The Department of Energy says the release of one million barrels of oil is timed to maximize the impact of prices at the pump before the summer driving season.

The oil is coming from a Northeast pipeline that has been shut down and was mandated in a congressional spending bill.

We sought out Robert Badowski, Chair of the School of Business at Westminster College, to find out how this will help our local economy.

"As far as the economy goes, as far as the stock market goes, and as far as what we see coming out of our pocketbooks, it's not going to move things hardly at all," Dr. Badowski said.

He explained why the impact would be minimal.

"We use about nine million barrels of oil a day and this is only one million. So if you do the math it's only about 11 percent of what we use in one day, so a lot of this I believe is much ado about nothing. We probably won't see a big dip in prices. Maybe a few cents," Badowski added. 

The release of the headlines between Memorial Day and July 4th could help President Biden more this election season, that the release of oil will help drivers at the pumps.

"Politically this is a good thing because they can say they're releasing a million barrels of oil or gasoline into the economy, and prices are going to fall, so they will take it as a win, although we won't see it much," Dr. Badowski said.