Who Is Right About Trump’s Big Oil Purchase? Former President Donald Trump managed to help the United States become a net exporter in 2020, exporting more petroleum than it imported.
His achievements in increased energy independence have been a popular refrain that Trump uses to defend his legacy and boost his 2024 candidacy.
Most recently, however, Trump has gone further on the energy file, saying that as POTUS he bought 75 million barrels of oil to bolster the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at a “remarkably low price.”
This has been fact-checked by Daniel Dale of CNN, who says that Trump’s claim he mega-boosted the SPR for mere “peanuts” is false.
Who Is Correct?
Trump has been bringing up his Strategic Reserve buy in the context of slamming Biden for selling off oil from the reserve. According to Trump he had to “fight” the Congress to push through the buy, which he says massively boosted America’s reserves.
As Dale points out, the purchase never occurred. Trump wanted to buy 77 million barrels of oil toward the last year of his presidency when prices tanked due to COVID, but Congress rejected the proposal, claiming it was just a handout to big oil.
Various GOP politicians have slammed Democrats for blocking the purchase, which would have nabbed enormous amounts of oil for the SPR at bargain basement prices.
But it never happened. Trump bought only 124,000 barrels in 2020, rather than the 175 million he claimed was purchased. He is incorrect or lying.
The Truth About the SPR and Donald Trump
The SPR is set up to store a maximum of 714 million barrels of oil. At the time Trump had ordered it filled without success, it was 87% full in any case. By the time Trump left office in January of 2021, the reserve was stocked at 683 million barrels, down from its level of 695 when he had entered office.
Trump’s recent claims that Biden’s sales from the SPR have left it “almost empty” are an exaggeration, although it is true that Biden’s policies have allowed the SPR to reach its lowest storage level in 40 years at around 355 million barrels.
This still leaves the SPR as the largest oil reserve on earth.
Biden partly justified releasing oil from the SPR because of the Ukraine-Russia War, allowing 180 million barrels onto the market to lower gas prices in 2022.
The Bottom Line
Various factors have impacted the SPR at different times in US history. While it’s true that Biden has allowed more oil out of the reserve than presidents in the last few decades, Trump’s claims that he made a big buy and filled the reserve are entirely false.
Paul Brian is an author and freelance journalist who has reported for Reuters, BBC and Foreign Policy, and contributed to the Spectator, the Federalist and the American Conservative. He has covered global events from Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East to South America.
From 19FortyFive
Joe Biden Is Starting To Scare Everyone
