Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is suddenly very interested in America’s emergency oil stash. Gas prices are climbing, oil markets are rattled by the conflict in the Middle East, and now Schumer says the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be opened up to calm things down.
That might sound reasonable on the surface. The SPR does exist to cushion energy shocks. But here’s the awkward part that keeps popping up in the conversation. Schumer fought President Trump when he tried to refill the reserve while oil prices were dirt cheap.
Now the same reserve is partially drained, oil has rocketed past $110 a barrel, and Schumer wants President Trump to start pumping barrels out of it.
Timing is everything in politics, and sometimes the timing makes people look a little ridiculous.
Schumer argued this week that the reserve was designed for exactly the situation unfolding right now. With tensions flaring in the Middle East and crude prices surging, he said the administration should release oil immediately to stabilize markets and bring down fuel costs.
The senator did not hold back when assigning blame either.
“When wars and global crises disrupt energy markets, the United States has the ability to act, but President Trump and his administration are refusing to do so,” Schumer said. “Trump should release oil from the SPR now to stabilize markets, bring prices down, and stop the price shock that American families are already feeling thanks to his reckless war.”
The criticism quickly ran into a rather inconvenient piece of recent history.
Back in 2020, President Trump wanted to use about $3 billion from a COVID stimulus bill to buy oil and refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while prices were collapsing. At the time crude had fallen to roughly $29 a barrel, which in the oil world is basically a clearance sale.
Schumer and congressional Democrats blocked the plan, calling it a bailout for the oil industry.
Fast forward a few years and the reserve itself looks very different. During the Biden administration, massive drawdowns were ordered to ease rising fuel prices after the post pandemic economic surge and the war in Ukraine. By the end of Biden’s term the reserve held about 415 million barrels, well below its maximum capacity of more than 700 million.
Schumer supported those releases and even praised one of the early drawdowns in 2021 as “much-needed temporary relief at the pump.” At the same time he argued the long term solution was moving away from fossil fuels and building a green energy economy.
The White House has not been shy about pointing out that history.
Officials argue that Schumer helped support policies that weakened domestic energy production while backing massive withdrawals from the reserve. Now that oil prices are climbing again, they say he wants the remaining emergency supply used to patch the problem.
Meanwhile the administration says the real issue sits thousands of miles away. Iran’s response to Operation Epic Fury has rattled shipping lanes near the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global oil transport. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has argued that restoring safe shipping through the region will stabilize markets far faster than draining the reserve again.
According to Wright, the disruption could last weeks but not months. In the administration’s view, the solution is simple. Neutralize the threat, reopen the shipping lanes, and let energy markets cool down naturally.
Schumer would prefer to start opening the emergency tank. The same tank he once insisted should not be filled when oil was practically on sale. Politics has a funny way of circling back around.
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