Beginning in November 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration has used the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to combat rising gas prices. In March of 2022, the administration announced a new release of 180 million barrels of oil into the supply chain, the most in the reserve’s history. As a result, the total amount of oil in the SPR decreased by more than 20% between November 2021 and July 2022.
A report released by the Treasury Department indicates that the effort did initially impact gas prices.
While the SPR’s main function is to protect the country from oil shortages, past sales of crude oil from the reserve were used to generate revenue for the federal government. These types of sales have increased since 2017.
