Hi friends!

This week we’ll look at the Biden administration’s decision to tap into the US oil reserves and why they feel it’s necessary. Then, it’s Autism Acceptance Month! We’ll share some of our favorite advocacy groups by and for autistic people.

So unless your other car is a broom, you’ve definitely noticed that gas prices have skyrocketed over the past month. To help curb these prices, which are making life hard for a lot of people, the Biden administration has decided to release 1 million barrels of oil a day from the reserves for the next six months. This is the biggest-ever release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SRP).

Last year the national average price for a gallon of gas was $2.87, and now it’s $4.23. There are a lot of reasons for the gas price increase–COVID dropped demand, and then OPEC was slow to ramp production back up; the Biden administration canceled pipelines and drilling leases, which caused prices to rise even before Russia invaded Ukraine. That invasion, though, meant that many governments shunned Russian oil and resulted in more price hikes.

The US oil reserves are in place to counter a disruption in commercial oil supplies that could threaten the U.S. economy- similarly to what happened in the 1975 Arab oil embargo. The US has tapped into the SRP several times over the past six months to help support the energy markets, and is doing it again now, just on a much larger scale. With any luck, gas prices will go back down to a more affordable level soon. It’s not a long-term solution, of course, but for now some think it is the best choice available.

April is Autism Acceptance Month! Some of our loved ones (and some of us!) are autistic, and from them we’ve learned that it’s very important to support organizations that autistic people form and lead. Here are some advocacy organizations we like:

• We are big fans of Autistic Self Advocacy Network. They work on a “nothing about us without us” platform that means that they want autistic people to be leading decision making processes that affect autistic people. That way, practices that might not seem harmful to allistic (not-autistic) people but do feel harmful to autistic people can be avoided and autistic people can thrive.
• Finally, Neurotribes by Steve Silberman. Okay, this one isn’t an organization, but it is a book that reframes autism as a gift, as just one more way to be a person in the world, and not as a deficit or disease. Silberman traces the history of autism and explores the larger concept of neurodiversity.

That’s it for us this week! We’ll be right back here next Friday.

How We Help

Last week we met with a business owner seeking to eventually transition out of her company. There is a significant age gap with her business partner, and they are dealing with a misalignment of personal goals at their company. We sat down to do planning for the owners to see where they are financially. Then we were able to run different analyses and present options to them of different scenarios. This will allow us to work with them to facilitate informed discussions while they reach a solution that works for everyone.

Advisory Services offered through Obsidian Personal Planning Solutions, LLC. Securities are offered through Triad Advisors, member ​FINRA/SIPC.​ Obsidian Personal Planning Solutions, LLC, and Obsidian Personal Planning Solutions, Inc, are not affiliated with Triad Advisors.