Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is urging President Donald Trump to release oil from the country's national stockpile as gas prices continue to soar amid the operation in Iran.
"Due to Donald Trump's reckless war of choice, gas prices have surged to their highest levels in years. His response? 'If they rise, they rise,'" Schumer said on social media.
"He couldn't care less. Today, I demanded Trump release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve IMMEDIATELY to bring relief to Americans at the pump," Schumer added.
Former President Joe Biden tapped the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 2022 as the war between Russia and Ukraine caused gas prices to spike, but Republicans dismissed the move as politically motivated.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve holds millions of barrels of crude below ground in salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.
But Biden's decision came at a cost. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Congress last year that more than $100 million in repairs would be needed to bring the facilities up to capacity.
Filling up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would cost billions of dollars, Wright warned.
"It shouldn't have been depleted for the 2022 midterm elections, as the Biden administration did," Wright said in an interview on Fox News. "We've done many other moves that allow the world to remain fully supplied with oil during this relatively brief conflict."
Wright said high gas prices were "a small price to pay to get to a world where energy prices are returned back to where they were — and I'm talking weeks, certainly not months."
Trump also blasted Biden's decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while speaking to reporters.
"Biden used them so that he can get some extra votes in the elections," Trump said. "He brought it down to the lowest level it has ever been."
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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