Chuck Schumer killed America's oil lifeline at $29 a barrel.
Now oil is over $110 a barrel – and he wants Trump to bail him out.
The man who sabotaged America's energy security is demanding the President fix what he broke.
How Chuck Schumer Killed Trump's Plan to Fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at $29 a Barrel
In March 2020, Trump saw the opportunity of a lifetime.
Oil prices had crashed during COVID.
At roughly $29 a barrel, Trump moved to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve all the way to the top.
It would have cost $3 billion and purchased 77 million barrels.
Schumer personally killed it.
He stripped the funding from the COVID stimulus package and bragged about eliminating what he called a "$3 billion bailout for Big Oil."
That decision didn't just cost taxpayers.
It cost America its strategic cushion – the one we desperately need right now.
Biden Drained 180 Million Barrels From the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Before the Iran War
When Biden took office in January 2021, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve held approximately 638 million barrels.
He inherited a near-full tank.
Then Biden drained it – not once, but repeatedly.
In 2022 alone, his administration released 180 million barrels – the single largest drawdown in the reserve's history – to suppress gas prices ahead of the midterm elections.
Sen. Tom Cotton put it plainly in a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright obtained by Fox News this week: "That decision drained the reserve to a 40-year low."
"The decision to drain the SPR was not a response to a supply emergency," Cotton wrote. "It was a deliberate political act designed to protect Democrats from the consequences of their own failed energy policies."
By the end of Biden's term, the reserve held roughly 415 million barrels – down from 638 million when he took office.
Now Gas Prices Are Surging and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Is Only 58 Percent Full
America is now at war in Iran.
Iran has the Strait of Hormuz locked down – the world's most critical oil transit chokepoint.
Roughly 20% of global petroleum moves through that 21-mile-wide waterway every day.
Since the war began, oil has shot above $110 a barrel and gas prices are jumping at the pump.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve – the exact asset designed for a moment like this – sits at just 58% capacity because Democrats spent years using it as a campaign prop.
Sen. Cotton said it directly: "The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil transit choke point. That is precisely why the SPR must be treated as a strategic national security asset – not a political tool."
Democrats turned a national security asset into a midterm election gimmick.
Now Americans are paying for it at every gas station in the country.
Schumer Now Demands Trump Release Oil From the Strategic Petroleum Reserve He Helped Empty
Here's what Schumer is saying today: "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists for moments exactly like this."
He's right.
It does exist for moments exactly like this.
Which is why what he did in 2020 – blocking the refill at $29 a barrel – was a betrayal of every American who drives to work, heats their home, or runs a small business.
Trump saw the crisis coming.
He tried to fill the reserve when oil was cheap.
Schumer stopped him.
Biden drained what was left.
The same man demanding Trump fix the problem is the one who helped create it.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright made clear this week that the real solution isn't the SPR – it's reopening the Strait of Hormuz by finishing the job against Iran.
"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. "Iran will finally be defanged."
Trump is playing the long game.
The Democrats who gutted our energy reserves for political points don't get to lecture him about it now.
Sources:
- Alex Miller, "Tom Cotton puts Biden on notice while demanding answers on draining of nation's oil stockpile," Fox News, March 11, 2026.
- Alex Miller, "Schumer once blocked Trump's move to fill the nation's oil reserves, now he wants them opened," Fox News, March 9, 2026.
- Seth McLaughlin, "Oil tanker clears Strait of Hormuz, Trump's energy secretary says, as gas prices surge," Washington Times, March 8, 2026.
- House Energy and Commerce Committee, "Rodgers, Barrasso Call Out Biden Administration for Continued Abuse of Strategic Petroleum Reserve," EnergyCommerce.house.gov.
- National Taxpayers Union Foundation, "Politics Drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Reforms Can Refill It Without Soaking Taxpayers," October 2, 2025.
