A sharp political dispute has emerged over America’s emergency oil stockpile as fuel prices surge amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is urging President Donald Trump to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), arguing the reserve exists specifically for moments when global crises disrupt energy markets.
In a statement, the New York Democrat said the administration should act quickly to prevent further price spikes at the pump.
“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.”
The call comes as oil prices have climbed above $110 per barrel, the highest level since 2022, following heightened conflict in the Middle East and threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil transit route.
However, critics note that Schumer and other Democrats previously opposed efforts by Trump to expand the oil reserve when prices were far lower.
During Trump’s first term, his administration attempted to allocate roughly $3 billion from a COVID-19 stimulus package to purchase oil and refill the reserve while prices had fallen to about $29 per barrel. Congressional Democrats, including Schumer, blocked the plan at the time, arguing it would amount to a bailout for the oil industry.
The current debate also highlights how the reserve has been used in recent years. Under former President Joe Biden, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was tapped twice — once in 2021 to address rising gasoline prices and again after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted global energy markets.
Those releases significantly reduced the stockpile. Although the SPR has a total capacity of more than 700 million barrels, the reserve contained roughly 415 million barrels at the end of Biden’s presidency, according to Department of Energy data.
Schumer supported those earlier releases under Biden, saying at the time that tapping the reserve provided “much-needed temporary relief at the pump.”
White House officials pushed back against Schumer’s criticism of the current administration, arguing that the broader strategy is to strengthen domestic production rather than rely on emergency reserves.
“Senator Schumer championed Joe Biden’s Green New Scam, which raised energy costs, threatened our national security, and stifled American energy independence,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement.
Administration officials say U.S. oil and gas production has reached record levels and argue that stabilizing global shipping routes will ultimately bring prices down more effectively than releasing oil from the reserve.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the key issue is restoring normal traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian threats against tankers have disrupted supply.
“We believe this is a small price to pay to get to a world where energy prices will return back to where they were,” Wright said in a television interview. He added that the disruption is expected to last weeks rather than months.
