America’s stockpile of emergency oil is shrinking fast

NEW YORK (CNN) — 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 previous records, but the amount of crude left in the reserve is approaching its lowest level since the early 1980s. Back then, the United States had a far smaller economy that consumed less ene...