Former President Donald Trump is vowing to refill the nation’s strategic oil stockpile if he returns to the White House next year, seeking to elevate the issue ahead of the November elections.
During a Fox News interview Wednesday, Trump said the Biden administration’s gambit to lower gasoline prices by conducting several reserve drawdowns in recent years has hurt the nation’s energy security.
“[Biden is] using the strategic reserves, which is meant for military, which is meant for war, and very important things, he’s using it to try and keep gasoline prices down,” Trump said. “We can’t allow that to happen.”
Indeed, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly said President Joe Biden’s release of more than 200 million barrels of oil from the reserve in 2022 was little more than a political ploy ahead of the midterm elections, even though Congress had mandated some of the sales.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve now stands at around 375 million barrels, it’s lowest level since the 1980s but slightly higher compared to the same time last year.
The stockpile can hold up to 714 million barrels, meaning Trump’s promise to “immediately refill” the reserve would involve purchasing around 300 million barrels.
Trump claimed that the reserve was being “filled up at levels never seen before” during his administration. In reality, the reserve’s levels were at their most recent peak in 2011 and dropped around 57 million barrels during Trump’s tenure.
The Biden administration has been working to at least partially refill the reserve when prices drop. On Tuesday, the Department of Energy announced it was seeking another 3.5 million barrels of the SPR’s Bayou Choctaw and Bryan Mound sites in January.
During the interview, Trump also went after Harris for her position on fracking after she walked back her support for a nationwide ban on the natural gas extraction technique.
“One thing I have learned about politicians … their first thought is the thought that they end up doing,” Trump said. “She is for no fracking.”
