Chuck Schumer wants Trump to drain oil reserves now – after reportedly blocking it at opportune time 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is urging President Donald Trump to release oil from U.S. reserves, though Schumer has reportedly blocked previous efforts to refill them at more opportune times.

Schumer wrote on X on Sunday that “today, I demanded Trump release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve IMMEDIATELY to bring relief to Americans at the pump.”

Congressional Democrats, led by Schumer, opposed funding to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by 12% in early 2020 when oil costs plummeted to around $20 a barrel, according to multiple reports.

A spokesperson for Schumer framed Trump’s efforts to refill the SPR as a “$3 billion bailout for big oil” at the time, according to reports. Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to The Lion’s request for comment Monday.

The federal government significantly drained the SPR in 2021 and 2022 ahead of the midterm elections, while record-high gas prices became a political conundrum for then-President Joe Biden and other Democrats.

Some energy policy experts have warned that depleting the SPR left the U.S. more vulnerable to war, though Energy and Environment Legal Institute Senior Fellow Steve Milloy told The Lion that “not only do we not need to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we don’t even need it.”

“It is an outdated concept,” Milloy told The Lion, noting that the SPR was forged during the 1970s, when America was dependent on Middle Eastern oil. “Thanks to President Trump’s energy dominance agenda, we are the leading global producer of oil. While we currently only supply about 65% of our oil needs with domestic oil, we have the resources and technology to make that 100% and more if needed.

“We need to work on being able to ramp up to 100% in the event that is needed. Filling the SPR, which holds a very limited supply of oil in the first place, isn’t worth worrying about.”

Trump campaigned in part on ramping up oil and gas production, often using the phrase “drill, baby, drill” to describe his pro-energy agenda.

The Trump administration has touted lower gas costs since he returned to office in 2025, though oil prices spiked to over $100 a barrel for the first time since July 2022 after the U.S. and Israel launched Operation Midnight Fury against Iran and the conflict has continued.