by Audrey Streb
The Lion
enate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is urging President Donald Trump to release oil from U.S. reserves, though Schumer has reportedly blocked previous efforts to refill them at more opportune times.
Schumer wrote on X on Sunday that “today, I demanded Trump release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve IMMEDIATELY to bring relief to Americans at the pump.”
Congressional Democrats, led by Schumer, opposed funding to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by 12% in early 2020 when oil costs plummeted to around $20 a barrel, according to multiple reports…
Some energy policy experts have warned that depleting the SPR left the U.S. more vulnerable to war, though Energy and Environment Legal Institute Senior Fellow Steve Milloy told The Lion that “not only do we not need to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we don’t even need it.”
“It is an outdated concept,” Milloy told The Lion, noting that the SPR was forged during the 1970s, when America was dependent on Middle Eastern oil. “Thanks to President Trump’s energy dominance agenda, we are the leading global producer of oil. While we currently only supply about 65% of our oil needs with domestic oil, we have the resources and technology to make that 100% and more if needed.
“We need to work on being able to ramp up to 100% in the event that is needed. Filling the SPR, which holds a very limited supply of oil in the first place, isn’t worth worrying about.”
