America’s pile of emergency oil is shrinking fast | CNN Business

When he launched his presidential campaign in late 2022, then-candidate Donald Trump blasted his successor for aggressively releasing oil from America’s emergency stockpile ahead of the midterm elections. “The strategic national reserves, which I filled up, have been virtually drained in order to keep gasoline prices lower, just prior to the election,” Trump said during his 2024 campaign launch at Mar-a-Lago, referring to President Joe Biden’s record-setting releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). But now, as voter frustration over high gas prices mounts, President Trump is draining the nation’s pile of emergency oil at an even faster pace than Joe Biden ahead of this year’s midterms. Not only has the magnitude of SPR releases under Trump surpassed records, but the amount of crude left in the reserve is approaching the lowest levels since the early 1980s. Back then, the United States had a far smaller economy that consumed less energy. The emergency steps taken this spring underscore the scale of the oil crisis set off by the war with Iran and the scramble around the world to replace crude trapped in the Persian Gulf. The shrinking pile of emergency oil als