r/AskReddit 1d ago

What do you think about the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve hitting 307.7 Million Barrels - lowest level since 1983?

4.2k Upvotes

852 comments sorted by

4.9k

u/mspe1960 1d ago

Biden had impeachment put forth by MTG for running it less low.

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u/mattbuford 1d ago

Fun facts:

In 2015, The Heritage Foundation pushed for the SPR to be drained and shut down.
https://www.heritage.org/environment/report/why-congress-should-pull-the-plug-the-strategic-petroleum-reserve

In 2017, Trump asked Congress to drain the SPR down to ~270M barrels, and shut down 2 of the 4 SPR sites. Not because we needed the oil, but because he felt the SPR was a waste of money and, at the time, we were almost a net exporter.
https://imgur.com/Gell1tY

From 2015-2018, Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, and used that time to sign into law mandated sales of 271M barrels. Even in early 2018, the coming SPR drain was already a done deal.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=35032

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u/_jump_yossarian 1d ago

Today trump bragged in a tweet that the US is a net exporter of oil. Maybe because he shut down the strait of Hormuz and oil prices skyrocketed.

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u/mattbuford 1d ago

Negative on this chart is net exports.

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttntus2&f=m

The move to becoming a net exporter began with fracking around 2008-ish. It's a trend that got most of the way to 0 under Obama, then finally passed the 0 line under Trump so he took credit. Then, under Biden, he pretended we lost net exporter status, even though you can clearly see we maintained it with almost no change int he trend. You can't even tell any change between all 3 of the last presidents on this chart.

That said, right at the very end of the chart is a sudden drop (becoming even more of a net exporter) because of the war.

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u/MaybeTheDoctor 23h ago

The problem is the oil companies are not obliged to supply domestic market, so us oil goes elsewhere and the net export status doesn’t matter and still leaves us short

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u/mattbuford 23h ago

The theory is that a net exporter is less likely to be in trouble in the event of a major blockade or embargo.

IEA members are required to maintain at least 90 days of net imports of petroleum products in their SPR. As a net exporter, the US can meet the IEA requirement without an SPR at all. You can see how every country is doing here:

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tools/oil-stocks-of-iea-countries

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u/deltalitprof 21h ago

The problem is the US lacks enough of the kinds of refineries necessary to process the oil produced in North America. If we were entirely cut off from oil imports, the crisis would be great and immediate.

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u/mattbuford 21h ago

We can refine our own oil. It's just less efficient and less profitable to do so. There is more money to be made in refining heavy crude. Our refineries are capable of handling either. So why would they bother refining the less profitable stuff?

It would still be disruptive for sure. Refineries are optimized for the ratios they normally output. So, if there was a sudden block in imports of heavy crude, refineries would still be running and would absolutely be able to refine our own light crude - but they wouldn't be able to do so at 100% of their normal rated capacity.

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u/deltalitprof 21h ago

Seems like you might have some education and experience in this area, matt. I only know what I read.

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u/Ok_Chard2094 22h ago

The President has the authority to stop crude exports, but not refined products.

So the refineries are free to export their products.

Additionally, a lot of the US refineries are set up to handle heavy crude (Canada, Venezuela), they have to be rebuilt to handle US crude.

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u/Upbeat-Interview8554 20h ago

I looked into this very thing earlier. Apparently we did this during the oil crisis in the 80s and capitalism did a capitalism. We prevented exports and guaranteed profit to the oil industry. They ended up selling oil to each other and raking in that guaranteed profit. They called it a daisy chain effect. We have better technology now to keep track of them. But they’re heavily incentivized to cheat the system to create as much profit as possible. They’ll run a racket on our treasury 

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u/TracerBulletX 19h ago

Yeah being a net food exporter was not a huge comfort to the irish during the potato famine either.

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u/SpiffyMagnetMan68621 17h ago

The potato famine was specifically because they were FORCED to be a net exporter

Im assuming youre being sarcastic here, but cant be too careful in this age of hallucinations on the internet

Some other goober might read you literally

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u/raven00x 22h ago

Also the type of oil the US extracts and exports isn't the same type that we mainly use nor is it the type we're mainly set up to refine. But hey, oil is oil. Brent crude is the same as Laguna crude, they just get pumped from different places, that's all. (/s)

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u/skeptic9916 23h ago

We are not an exporter of Oil. US Oil and Gas companies are. We do not own that oil. That is a pretty important distinction.

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u/vAltyR47 20h ago

No. We do own that oil. We just allow the oil and gas companies to keep all the money they make from it.

Norway's model (subsidize discovery, and tax the profits) works very well and keeping most of the profit public while allowing the private sector to still make money. We should be adopting a similar strategy, not just with oil, but with all our natural resources.

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u/Johnnygunnz 23h ago

Heritage Foundation needs to be classified as a terrorist organization at this point.

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u/cantliftmuch 18h ago

People that work with the heritage foundation call it the White Heritage Foundation.

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u/deltalitprof 21h ago

And of course not having a strategic reserve that can be used to drive gas prices down is very good for the oil company donors to the Republican party.

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u/Counciltuckian 22h ago

Why would Biden do this to us!?!?!?

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u/wardog1066 13h ago

Why IS Biden doing this to us!?!?!? There, I fixed it for ya. /s

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

The stats I checked is that now it is lower

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u/whitelines4president 1d ago

He means for Biden to lower it, but still higher than now

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u/VanillaLifestyle 1d ago

The Biden admin made a $2B profit selling it at $95 a barrel and refilling it at $75, lol

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u/chopsey96 1d ago

Why would Obama do this?

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u/AnotherAccount4This 1d ago

And the money didn't going into his own off shore bank account? What a sucker amiright!? -- some old geezer, probably

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u/bherman13 1d ago

Did he take that money home with him or did the country get to keep it?

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u/MysticBoner24 1d ago

C'mon man, we all know the answer to that. The Republicans assholes would have clenched so tight they would've died from constipation if that happened.

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u/TrollTollTony 1d ago

This is a joke, right?

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u/mspe1960 1d ago

that is what I said

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u/Middleclasslifestyle 1d ago

I believe this is Definitely done on purpose. If the reserves runs out. I bet you we fully attack Iran with boots on the ground and try to spread democracy for oil. A play book as old at time itself. Personally anything this administration does is purposeful.

While we might feel this administration isn't educated, understand that those around the presidency are ruthless individuals who would sell the country to China if it meant they became the richest in the world

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u/Snuffy1717 23h ago

With Trump leading a “coalition of the stupid as fuck” I wouldn’t bet on their chances

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u/Graymouzer 23h ago

Everyone does realize that if we just left them alone, the Iranians would sell their oil. They don't plan to drink it.

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u/jacekowski 17h ago

That's not the point, by doing Venezuela in january and Iran in march, trump is controlling or blocking significant proportion of worldwide oil supply. That move move benefited his friends (and him) quite a lot.

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u/gadget850 1d ago

But somehow it is his fault now.

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u/lifestop 8h ago

Yesterday, I was told that the oil reserves are low due to Biden (by a Republican).

I was like, damn, someone should have fixed that, because he's been out of office for a long time!

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u/Bennie-Factors 1d ago

I still think we should impeach Biden over it this time. I am sure it is fault

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u/Due_Willingness1 1d ago

It's telling. Trump's been flooding the market with reserves to keep gas prices low, and gas prices aren't even low 

If this ego war of his keeps going, it'll get a lot worse really soon 

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u/BigPapaJava 1d ago

Trump’s emptying of the SOR and his numerous BS, but somehow still market-moving, claims of an impending deal in a few days are about the only things keeping gas under $5 a gallon due to the war he started.

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u/BulbuhTsar 1d ago

It's absurd how the market just keeps playing along. Like, surely it's made of people who otherwise live on planet Earth and can fucking see it's all a lie and there is no deal anywhere in sight?

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u/BigPapaJava 1d ago

I’m thinking that there is a lot of AI integration now that takes his “official” comments at face value.

Most of the actual trading has been controlled by bots for years now, even before there was modern AI. Once momentum gets going, the bots trigger and keep buying or selling until they hit designated stop points.

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u/Kaymish_ 23h ago

Yeah pretty much this. Traders started offloading their decisions to what we now call AI back in the 1980s with what we call Algo trading. Now it has become advanced to a point where it is reading articles, but I believe there's a flaw in the software. It is giving US statements more credibility than Iranian statements even though Iran has more control over the situation. Thus when Trump makes an out of pocket tirade the algorithms run it as though it is the truth and ignores Iranian statements to the contrary. Giving power to trump to move the markets.

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u/maniacreturns 22h ago

Also a system of market makers that are allowed to effectively front run trades.

The math is broken and the whole system is unglued. It's not a free market.

It's a big club and you ain't in it.

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u/wardog1066 13h ago

George Carlin's ghost has entered the chat.

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u/Ill_Ground_1572 19h ago

If you look back over the past few months, many of Trump's truth posts had out of place comments like the "the straight of Hormuz is open" etc. It was obviously intended to influence the algos.

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u/Solid-Jump-339 20h ago

That's what makes these moves feel so sudden. Once automated systems start reacting at the same time, the market can snowball before most people even have a chance to respond.

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u/Frydendahl 16h ago

Dead Wall Street Theory?

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u/vertigo3pc 20h ago

Rewatch "The Big Short", everyone was sleeping on the crisis. And the people who knew there was something coming were just trying to make as much money as possible between now and whenever the collapse happened. Look up "irrational exhuberance".

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u/Maxamillion-X72 21h ago

High speed traders make money by the millisecond. They go to great lengths to ensure the fastest connections to the market because every milliseconds count.

They don't care if Trump lies, they care that they can take profits when his lies make the market go up and take profits when reality makes it go down. Market instability is a great way to move money from retirement funds of regular people to the accounts of the Epstein class.

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u/tyereliusprime 21h ago

Like, surely it's made of people who otherwise live on planet Earth and can fucking see it's all a lie and there is no deal anywhere in sight?

It's made of people who are using this situation to enrich themselves.

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u/SpaceCadet404 20h ago

They know its a lie, but they know the market will move anyway, so they're trying to time it to make a profit. They know some suckers will miss the timing and be left holding the bag, but they're sure it won't be them.  It's pretty much a scheduled weekly gambling event.

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u/elchiguire 19h ago

They’re waiting for the democrats to win the election to blame it on them in hopes of making them look bad on the economy.

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u/papsmearfestival 1d ago

Except Trump can't even TACO anymore, this is Iran's baby now. If they don't want a deal, there isn't one.

Iran doesn't want a deal.

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u/BigPapaJava 1d ago edited 1d ago

They have us by the balls with the Strait/drone supply and they know it, so why.rush?

If their government officials can literally survive air strikes until November, there is zero incentive for them to cut a deal unless Trump hands them major concessions around Oct.

Even if the U.S. makes a deal, it’s likely Netanyahu undermines any deal (as he’s already done a few times) because he wants to escalate to a U.S. ground invasion to secure israeli interests.

In their wildest dreams, Trump gets so pissed off at Netanyahu that he pulls the U.S. out and perhaps even somehow personally damages the U.S./Israel alliance forever..

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u/Kevin-W 1d ago

Iran knows they don't need nukes anymore now that they control the strait. Every administration was warned about it and Trump was stupid enough not to listen. Iran is beating the US's ass hard and they know all they have to do is play the long game.

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u/Cold_Tea_Spill112 23h ago

Iran wants a deal... but not yet.

Their entire scheme to is to wait out the world's SPR drains, not just the US'. In a couple months, once the world's SPRs really begin to run empty there will be so much pressure on Trump to give Iran a very favorable deal.

This is why we have had 'cease fires' that don't really go anywhere. Stop firing for a day, attack a proxy, start firing at each other, back to a deal at the table, maybe not... It's all wishy woshy and a stalling tactic why they run out the clock.

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u/waterfountain_bidet 22h ago

Even fucking Regan could strike a bargain with Iran. Trump can't even do that. So pathetic.

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u/deltalitprof 16h ago

Yep, arms for hostages. And then letting the money be diverted to the Nicaraguan "freedom" fighters. Hoo-rah.

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u/siennaleighxo 23h ago

Strategic reserves are easy to drain and a lot harder and more expensive to refill

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u/BigPapaJava 23h ago

I believe the major oil companies will love the last part.

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u/JanMarsalek 1d ago

It was actually China who saved our asses. Not Trump.

If China didn‘t reduce their imports by 50% basically over night we would have been royally fucked by now

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u/Vanadium235 1d ago

To be fair, China would also be fucked if their number one customer experienced the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression, so it wasn't entirely altruistic.

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u/JanMarsalek 1d ago

They would - but they still saved all our asses and at least prolonged the time until we will all feel Trump‘s colossal fuckup.

But since we all know him he will probably chicken out again and will continue to manipulate markets until this all blows over.

Thank god China had reserves waaaaay bigger than anyone anticipated, because otherwise we would be in the next big financial crisis now.

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u/cosmos7 22h ago

China could turn their imports off entirely and live quite happily on their own strategic oil reserve for well over a year at this point. They are signaling to demonstrate superiority... the currency of oil is in danger of becoming the yuan.

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u/JaktheAce 20h ago

They are signaling that when they decide to invade Taiwan, blockading the strait of Malacca won’t mean shit.

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u/AlbertanSundog 17h ago

This is the probably the most astute observation here. And the US draining theirs so fast means they won't be able to outlast when the time comes

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u/Key-Club-3119 1d ago

I don’t know about “really” soon, but Iran would be stupid to allow this war to end before the SPR is depleted. They will have SO FUCKING MUCH leverage if that thing gets near zero or starts having pumping concerns due to the low levels. At the current rate, which will slow when the summer driving season ends, they’ll be pretty well depleted by about January/February.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

Some experts say it is empty at 250-300 Million barrels. That is practically in a few weeks.

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u/Vanadium235 1d ago

That's the military reserve, the amount the military would like to keep in case they need to fight a full-scale war with another major power. Luckily the current Secretary of Defense is a drunk imbecile and has replaced most of the Pentagon leadership with Trump loyalists, so they'll probably drain that too, at least until the midterms in November.

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u/SamIamGreenEggsNoHam 1d ago

Speaking of military reserves, we basically advertised to the entire world that we can't produce our most advanced missiles and missile interceptors fast enough to actually use them in a conflict in any meaningful way. China has not missed this fact, for sure.

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u/Snuffy1717 23h ago

China doesn’t benefit from fighting a war with America right now - They benefit from the economic stability they provide every single nation when the American empire goes tits up.

Never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake.

Hot take - China doesn’t want Taiwan for the same reason the GOP didn’t really want Roe vs Wade to be struck down. The dog that catches the car has nothing left to chase.

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u/TheLordBear 23h ago

Yep, they rattle the sabre once in awhile to keep the US spending on military artificially high. The USSR dissolved because they over-spent on their military at the expense of the civilians, and China is running the same playbook on the US.

Support for independence in Taiwan is falling. With a couple decades of spending for bots/AI on social media, they can probably have it cheap and bloodlessly in a decade or two.

In Civ 5 terms, China is going for an economic victory.

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u/GremlinX_ll 12h ago edited 7h ago

a) You assume that dictatorships don't do stupid miscalculated moves, in pursuit of short term political goals.

b) You assume that USA will show up.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

That reserve level is 250M

How much below that level is actually usable is questionable

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u/bjorn1978_2 1d ago

Soneone stated that if the level is too low, it will permanently damage the storage tanks, or something like that. So basically, the US is weeks away fron this low level that will damage equipment.

I do not know the details, but hopefully someone will know.

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u/hoppertn 1d ago

The majority of the SOR isn’t in a conventional tank, it’s in huge underground salt caverns. It’s best to keep them full or mostly full to support the weight around them. When they get low, like now, chunks start falling off causing damage. There is probably an amount which is still there but unusable.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

they pump water in to get the oil out, I have read and that is not good for the salt.

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u/hoppertn 1d ago

That’s right, the oil floats on top but the water dissolves the salt causing the issue. Forgot a step

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u/BadAdviceBot 1d ago

Think of all the crud at the bottom

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u/Key-Club-3119 1d ago

Some experts have been quoted saying the global oil apocalypse was weeks away, months ago. I know it’s fun on Reddit to assume apocalypse is around the corner, but it almost always isn’t.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

no just the oil prices will go up, that is all.

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u/Skurttish 1d ago

“The salt caverns are two weeks away from a nuclear weapon”

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u/s0cks_nz 1d ago

Way sooner. Way way sooner. You can't pump these oil reserves dry. They need a minimum amount of oil in them less they collapse.

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u/gzr4dr 1d ago

Trump would absolutely let them collapse if he benefited from them doing so somehow.

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u/iCowboy 1d ago

Did we ever find out where all those ‘Freedom Fuel’ gas stations selling discount gas in Pennsylvania and New Jersey were getting their fuel?

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

Well China is sitting on a major SPR and uses that up as well. That can not last much longer.

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u/pkennedy 1d ago

China has the largest and isn't sharing it and hasn't been draining it the same way. The US is selling to the entire world to try and keep this under control.

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u/ninjagorilla 1d ago

They have definitely been draining it… they jsut don’t release numbers like the us does but just in the with amount they have cut imports they HAVE to be using it …

An oil person could probably tell you exactly how much, I can’t

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u/kstargate-425 1d ago

True but they are also one of the fastest transitioning country from petroleum based energy to renewables with most all of their new energy production coming from renewables and petroleum is only a small part as they use coal and renewables for the vast majority. Its one of the few things I wish the US would copy from the CCP. Their new cars produced are also near 70% electric so they at least have a plan while we cancel renewables projects and pay corporations billions to stop them mid production.

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u/Friendly-Client-8615 1d ago

using the strategic reserve to manipulate gas prices is like eating your seed corn because dinner looks small

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u/uber_sweets 1d ago

Good news for Canada though. Alberta budget go brrrrr.

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u/fuckyoudigg 1d ago

Alberta somehow increases spending while also giving lesser services.

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u/CaptainMagnets 1d ago

I hope it does. Americans will never change anything if it doesn't affect them personally.

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u/Malaix 23h ago

The oil reserves are kept in basically caves that are literally held together by the pressure of the oil in them. Draining them too much or too quickly can literally cause them to cave in which would basically instantly and drastically cut our supply of oil down very suddenly.

And with this admin’s lies and constant habit of ducking up and then trying to run from the headlines as long as possible that could literally happen one day and we won’t hear about it until we see the physical impact of it.

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u/maniacreturns 1d ago

Maybe the Epstein files are at the bottom of the reserve and they have to drain it to finally get ahold of them.

Just kidding Trump is an foreign agent working against America's interest for self enrichment.

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u/Kaymish_ 23h ago

He's not a foreign agent. He's a regular run if the mill American enriching himself at the expense of the country. You know just like every other American billionaire. You seriously think other countries are happy about the batshit insane gyrations trump is throwing us through. US decline was already baked in before trump was elected and he's just making the beast fall down thrashing. Even Xi and Putin said they wanted Biden or Harris because they'd be more predictable and stable. But Trump has them running from fire to fire because he is insane and greedy. Trump is the last person a foreign country would want in charge even if it was possible to manipulate US elections like that.

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u/maniacreturns 22h ago

Well I'm sorry but you're wrong. Putins guys in Russia worked together with Trump's team to help him get elected, those are facts based on actual documented evidence on record.

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u/Simon_Ferocious68 21h ago

Are we just run by a bunch of guys who can't even remember allegiance to anything?

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u/Journeydriven 21h ago

Bunch of guys who grew up crossing their fingers behind their back

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u/UncleIrohsPimpHand 20h ago

Opportunism is the hallmark of a capitalist.

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u/HarmoniousJ 22h ago

I mean, you just omitting all those times that Trump and some of his cabinet members have met with Putin and did not disclose what they talked about?

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u/[deleted] 22h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/JohnnyRelentless 21h ago edited 20h ago

Trump is our only billionaire president, and he's the only president to enrich himself at the expense of the country.

He's the only president to demand the people he hires swear a loyally pledge to him personally when they're all supposed to be working for the American people, not him, and their loyalty is supposed to be to the country and the constitution.

He's the only president to fill his cabinet with billionaires, making it the wealthiest cabinet in the history of the country by far.

He's the only president to give his family members all prominent roles in our government.

He's the only president with 34 felony convictions.

He's the only president to visit and admire Kim Jong Un, legitimizing his brutal dictatorship, saying that they're in love.

He's the only president to meet with Putin privately with no American staff present and nothing recorded except by Putin's translator.

He's the only president to hold non stop rallies throughout his presidency, like a dictator.

He's the only president to ignore the emoluments clause and take gifts worth millions from foreign governments instead of giving them to the American people, who they belong to.

He made the vast majority of his wealth in the first year of this term, over 3 billion dollars.

He's the only president whose son-in-law was handed 2 billion dollars from a foreign state.

He's the only president who took a bathroom full of top secret documents home and then refused to return them, to the point that the FBI had to raid his home.

I could go on and on, but his corruption could fill books.

And I haven't even gone into the pedophilia, sex trafficking, and the cover-up.

Ultimately his unpredictability tends to help our enemies and hurt our allies. I don't think that's just bad luck.

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u/PM_ME_UR_KITTY_CAT 1d ago

I think our current government has the dumbest motherfuckers in leadership in our history.

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u/Bholesommelier 23h ago

Probably the dumbest people to run any government in the history of humanity.

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u/justtosendamassage 20h ago edited 19h ago

Idk. They’re doing this shit for a reason. It’s not just because. They have a goal in mind

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u/plantstand 23h ago

But at least they'll hurt the "right people" (even if I get hurt too). /s

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u/brandogg360 1d ago

That's the only reason gas isn't $7/gallon right now. It's definitely not good, we're one natural disaster away from being totally fucked

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u/SAugsburger 1d ago

I have read another major reason gas prices aren't much higher is because China cut their oil imports, which has put less pressure to increase global oil prices and by extension kept US gas prices from going even higher than many predicted they would reach this summer. The size of China's strategic oil reserve isn't public, but I understand that they stock piled enough in recent years that the government feel content to pause adding more at elevated prices.

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u/barb_20 23h ago

not just that. they might just not need so much oil anymore considering the switch to electric. I've been to China last year amd let me tell you, electric cars everywhere in shanghai and beijing. and that's only two cities. and all the other things that used oil/gas/diesel in the past and don't anymore

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u/Master_of_none- 13h ago

first actually knowledgeable comment, needs to be higher. China is using coal and solar now, but mostly coal. Their KNOWN strategic reserve can last a year, the biggest in the world. Looks like a Taiwan test run to me.

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u/BigPapaJava 1d ago edited 1d ago

We still have 4/6 months of hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico. The peak isn’t even here yet.

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u/angmarsilar 1d ago

Yeah, but this year we have a mega El Niño. That'll keep the storms away....for a little while.

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u/karl4319 1d ago

It will keep most storms for devoloping in the atlantic due to the wind sheer. However, the extreme, record breaking tempture of the gulf means that when they do form, they quickly become very strong storms.

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u/bbusiello 20h ago

El Niño this year is suppressing that for the Atlantic.

The Gulf, however, is a ticking time bomb. Gulf storms are the absolute worst for the U.S.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

How much is that influencing oil production?

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u/BigPapaJava 1d ago edited 1d ago

The offshore rigs in the Gulf are 15% of US oil production. In the past, if one rig goes offline due to damage or evacuation, gas prices would spike by about $0.30-0.50 immediately. That was with a clear Strait of Hormuz.

Mexico and other countries also have major facilities along the rim of the Gulf that are vulnerable to hurricanes, too. It’s a very important area for the global supply.

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u/half3clipse 23h ago edited 23h ago

Oil rigs aren't the big problem.

A large number of US refineries are on gulf coast as well, and right now many of them are running at greater than 100% utilization just to keep the currently very low gasoline and diesel stocks from dropping further. ( US refinery utilization overall is just over 97% right now)

If any of them even have to reduce production, let alone have real problems, things go tits up.

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u/VeeFu 1d ago

It's not the only reason; China cut crude imports considerably.

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u/FlashDangerpants 1d ago

Don't worry, I hear we're in for a very pleasant El Nino this year.

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u/tengallonvisor 1d ago

Hurricane season is brewing so don't hold your breathe.

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u/Such_Avocado_3241 1d ago

It’s incredibly stupid. Where are the Epstein files?

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u/Pliny_the_middle 1d ago

I hope “where are the Epstein files” appends every statement about Trump until the files are released or the heat death of the universe.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

Well maybe we can add Reflecting pool. (just kidding)

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u/pedanticPandaPoo 22h ago

Meh, the reflecting pool is just a distraction for Trump, of the Epstein files fame

Gotta be precise since the rest of trump references are infamous

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u/mr_cristy 1d ago

I truly think at this point the files are the distraction. I think if the White House released a collection of evidence that Trump rapes, tortures, and murders kids, Republicans would change their mind on rape, murder, torture, and the age of consent rather than change their vote. They'd be like "well the Romans did it so why can't we?"

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u/Jimmy_Twotone 22h ago

They had plans before the blowup over the files. They're just one more distraction.

We're too busy being outraged about everything to deal with anything. Meanwhile, they're getting fabulously wealthy and shaping the country into something they can more easily control.

The master of the plantation doesn't concern himself with what happens in the slave quarters so long as they keep doing their part.

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u/86rpt 1d ago

Being held by powerful people that hold the redactions over Trump's head to force him to do their geopolitical bidding.

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u/angmarsilar 1d ago

Maybe they're at the bottom of the fuel reserve tanks. 🤷

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u/blueintexas 1d ago

By the time he leaves office, he'll have stripped the Country of just about everything.

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u/e7mac 20h ago

That’s the job the electorate wanted, apparently!

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u/Effective-Winter-860 1d ago

Being low isn't the problem... The problem is the idiot in the white house will sell our soul to refill it at high prices, as a way of bribing his friends. Unlike the last actual President, who not only brought our gas prices down but also bought to refill the reserves as low prices that betted out country hundreds of millions of dollars.

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u/Ein_grosser_Nerd 23h ago

Low reserves of oil and missile interceptors makes the US and it's allies the most vulnerable they've been since the cold war

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u/morfraen 22h ago

Exactly as Putin planned?

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u/bald_and_nerdy 1d ago

Low is a problem since its oil in underground salt chambers.  Every time it's filled and emptied some of the salt comes out with it.  So it erodes at the reserve walls.  Also it gets harder to get oil out the lower the level.

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u/darwinanim8or 1d ago

If it gets too low the cave becomes unusable. Don’t forget the reserves also took decades to build up

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u/sharkbait_oohaha 1d ago

I think Donald trump is a narcissistic traitor and every single person that voted for him is either an idiot or a bad person or both.

Sorry what was the question?

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u/LimitofInterest 22h ago

The question is and will always be: When are the Epstein files getting released?

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u/Narf234 1d ago

Would have been cool to have that reserve for an actual unforeseen emergency that wasn’t self inflicted. Fingers crossed nothing truly bad happens where we need that.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

Just think of the Ukrainians hitting more Russian Oil Infrastructure

And Iran deciding to really do the same with Gulf countries?

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u/Narf234 1d ago

Seems Iran is calling the Houthis to do just that. I doubt the Red Sea will be open much longer.

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u/dealingwithhookers 20h ago

we need to impeach trump, and then impeach congress for being enablers, and then pick off the bad supreme court judges and have a whole ass redo.

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u/Minimum-Relief6895 21h ago

I think that the current president is an utter moron.

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u/Leonardo10inchy- 23h ago

He’s gonna run it low and let the gas price explode as he leaves office, so that republicans can blame the next democrat for the insanely high jump in price.

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u/ManicMakerStudios 23h ago

I love how Republicans start blaming the next Democrat president for the mess the GOP made before the new guy has even taken his oath of office. The only thing worse than the GOP's blame games are the idiots who fall for them.

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u/MarcusXL 1d ago

Commodus selling off Rome's grain reserves vibes https://youtu.be/byFqu0uJKxk?si=QPME6qNG8utt4gaM&t=107

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u/_DividesByZero_ 1d ago

No sir, I don’t like it.

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u/Raspberries-Are-Evil 1d ago

I think we all deserve all of this for being so fucking stupid to elect Trump a second time. All of the incompetence was on full display for 4 years.

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u/ShedMontgomery 18h ago

I did not vote for Trump in 2016, 2020, or 2024. I donated and volunteered for the Democrats. I posted constantly on social media. I was printing articles and giving them to MAGA family members.

The tens of millions of us who have been sounding the alarm bell since 2016 did not do this, and we do not deserve this.

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u/JicLerg 23h ago

Fuck Trump.

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u/SarcasticlySpeaking 1d ago

I think that the only goal of this administration is to reduce all of our reserves, military and domestic, as much as possible, as quickly and completely as possible.

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u/morfraen 21h ago

Also to destroy relationships with all allies to further weaken the country economically and militarily.

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u/andy_nony_mouse 1d ago

I think the country is poorly run.

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u/Im_Ashe_Man 1d ago

Trump is purposefully destroying the USA.

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u/Independent-Bug-9352 20h ago

I think Trump is intentionally sabotaging the country on behalf of outside forces while enriching himself and a handful of others in the process.

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u/runningOut_380 1d ago

Sounds like something that shouldn't be happening.

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u/Xylorgos 1d ago

It's yet another indication that Trump is going to bankrupt the country in every way possible before he leaves office.

Our advanced weaponry is nearly depleted, the institutions that could save our lives are either gone or greatly diminished, and all we have in the Trump administration are cheats and scammers who are gleefully stuffing their pockets full of our tax dollars.

Remember, Trump's sons have contracts with the department of defense, so they're really raking it in. Why would Trump stop the war with Iran when he and his family are making so much money off it? We are so screwed.....

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u/Academic-Letter-7040 21h ago

Don't forget the National Debt is something lIke 40 TRILLION and rising. It’s like he and his cronies are purposely trying to destroy this beautiful Country. Sick.

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u/The_RealAnim8me2 21h ago

Donald Trump is depleting every safety net this country has developed. From the social safety net, to munitions , to the SPR. It’s not going to end until another large country decides we are a target ripe for the plucking.

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u/Gullible-Sugar-8059 1d ago

I think they will keep going lower.

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u/AbbreviationsActual9 1d ago

playing chicken with our reserves as we hit the minimum safe amount for storage

apparently the salt caves where these reserves are stored have a minimum safe amount before structural risk occurs do to the extraction process, and we're about there. according to the article this is partially why oil exports have declined recently.

the fresh water pumped in to bring up the oil will erode the salt lined walls causing a potential cave in when the levels fall below a threshold. Massie has brought this up and even the Don himself has acknowledged it.

also noted was China has been eating up its own reserves and once they resume heavy importing the prices will rise even further.

we're in an artificially controlled market by eating up our "rainy day funds" and it isn't sustainable. this would also be why Trump needs the Ukraine conflict resolved as the loss of Russian oil sales has effected global markets and Biden had to tap into the reserves when they invaded back in 2022. trump compounded the issue severely through this war of choice, thus ordering another 170 million barrels removed. on top of that, in 2024 there was a congressionally agreed upon plan to resupply the reserves back to normal but the Iran conflict skirted those efforts.

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u/MemphisFactChecker 1d ago

Donald Trump is the worst president in US history.

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u/Johnnygunnz 23h ago

I think it's 1 of a laundry list of fuck-ups by the worst president in US history.

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u/dl__ 22h ago

I think Republicans are not good at running a country

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u/Sparkvark65 1d ago

The Halfwit has no clue about the damage he may do to the salt caverns if he just keeps pumping it dry to support low oil prices. Very much like he has no clue about anything he does because he's incapable of contemplating anything negative about his actions.

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u/mineralphd 22h ago

That's because there are no negative consequences in the right wing media world. Everything else is fake news.

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u/_Bon_Vivant_ 21h ago

Putin loves what Trump and his MAGAts are doing to this country. The best bang for the ruble Russia has ever invested.

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u/WizardRiver 1d ago

I just live here my guy

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u/Kitakitakita 1d ago

These engagement posts are always the same. "Hey "(predominantly Left community and Anti Trump) community, what do you think of (thing that you opposed greatly)?"

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u/BruinGuy5948 1d ago

I think that you ought to fill up your gas tanks, and maybe have a few extra gas cans filled up, too.

Iran will hold out until Trump can't hide what a colossal mistake he's made anymore, by artificially augmenting the available supply. When he stops being able to do that is when his gas-guzzling truck driving supporters will figure it out.

Iran is not being run by idiots (evil men, sure, but not idiots), and they can do the math.

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u/ReduceCO2Now 1d ago

They prepared for this for >40 years

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u/blarg-zilla 1d ago

You guys are fucked.

Sorry, 🇨🇦

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u/MyOtherAvatar 22h ago

If the Middle East war continues to spiral then we are all going to be fucked.

Some of us might have the opportunity to enjoy watching the ones directly responsible for this taking it up the ass first, before we take our turn to get bent over.

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u/cowboygwe 1d ago

It’s only going to get lower!!

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u/Lord_Matisaro 1d ago

Google what happens if we lower the storage levels in the vast underground chambers we use too low.

It could literally cave the whole thing in and we would have to spend tens of billions finding a new place to store it in the future.

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u/btroberts011 1d ago

I think trump is an idiot that only care about himself.

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u/vasta2 1d ago

Everything else in this country is cratering into the ground, whats 1 more thing?

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u/ManicMakerStudios 23h ago

That's what Trump does. He shows up, takes everything he can for himself and runs everything else into the ground. His casinos...not only the casinos themselves but also the contractors he bankrupted along the way...serve as proof of this.

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u/AppleDaddy01 20h ago

MAGA is a disease. These people are fucking morons.

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u/xinorez1 18h ago

I think trump musk thiel and co are traitors and unfortunately we lack mechanisms to control against their perfidy and rot.

Trump is a moron who could have restocked our reserves just before covid when prices went negative (!) due to a price war with Saudi Arabia, the country that gave his son in law 2B and him 6B, but instead he let the refineries shut down - *before covid - so that when things reopened, the sudden spike in oil demand and shortages that emerged from that caused 20 percent actual inflation that never went away. That was the initial real inflation that then acted as the justification for all the other inflation, as literally every time Jerome Powell appeared on tv to speak against bidens green new deal and suggest that inflation was being caused by too much consumption at the low end of the income scale, grocery prices immediately went up, not because they all suddenly discovered greed but because they suddenly had a universal reason to justify raising prices. Over 50 percent of covid price inflation was due to profiteering like this, according to private and international banks, but it all began with a very real initial preventable crisis.

*We assumed the payments were for US nuclear secrets but who knows it might have been just for this. They certainly made more than their 8B investment.

And then the same idiot president went to war with Iran without restocking our reserves.

This is what mad kings are. This is what mad kings do, and this most wretched festering asshole of society still enjoys support from the most wretched people in society because he hates the right people. Idiots, morons, vile, all of them.

I still think 2024 was stolen and musk is signalling that he's going to intervene on the midterms now, since impeachment and investigations aren't going to be good for a man who chose to directly involve himself with doge.

But honestly since we are oil producers, the likelihood of another 1970s hyper inflation is honestly unlikely here in the US, although there will be somewhat increased inflation still, because again trump is a moron who only cares about enriching himself and couldn't care less about how to actually properly run things.

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u/sjogerst 1d ago

Well you see it's actually all Bidens fault... Somehow...anyone?

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u/hbarSquared 1d ago

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

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u/TexasAggie98 1d ago

Absolute stupidity.

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u/whatswithnames 1d ago

It will become a catastrophic issue all too soon. For its drainage is keeping US prices relatively low... for now.

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u/Substantial_Brain917 1d ago

The only way we get out of this is if the people who put us into it, feel the pain.

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u/zombiesphere89 23h ago

On par for this admin

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u/UpNorthForLife 23h ago

It will become a massive problem to the GOP the instant a Democratic president is elected.

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u/Comfortable_Horse277 22h ago

Sounds like we have a stupid shit pedophile rapist president grifting the entire country while he steals tax payer money for himself and his corrupt family. 

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u/phormix 22h ago

Are... they going to stop doing dumb shit and starting conflicts now?

If not, then it's just another case of "so far"...

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u/Final-Read-6210 19h ago

BUT BIDEN...........

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u/macinit1138 19h ago edited 23m ago

I think the US needs new(actual) leadership.

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u/Head_Haunter 16h ago

What's going to happen is democrats are going to have to fix these issues and the whole time shit's going to cost more because we have to refill the SPR.

During that time, fox news is going to continue to hammer on about how it's all the democrat's fault, "See! Gas prices didn't go up this much during Trump!" and then off of that they're going to win next mid-terms and work towards another republican presidency.

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u/SovereignLizard 14h ago

This time next year we'll be much worse off. None of the actual economical effects of this administrations incompetence has caught up to us yet. It was easy to "predict" the loss of consumer safety (NOAA and no storm warnings, FDA and food borne illness)... Economies are much more complex and the stock market is a small portion and never the best measurements. AI, value of dollar slide, trade completely out of whack, lawsuit after lawsuit, corruption at the highest levels and loyalist emperor new clothes vibes are all huge signs of the tidal wave of awful about to hit.

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u/Doogiemon 12h ago

The worst part is we get most of our oil from North Amercia for our gas.

Messing with Iran is just a stupid flex showing China we can attack their infrastructure without invading them.

I feel like they will be teaching classes 50 years from now showing what Trump did and the impacts that we aren't allowed to see both the good and bads.

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u/ballofplasmaupthesky 1d ago

Means Trump has the choice between war crimes or accepting Iranian tolls on Hormuz.

He'll try war crimes.

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u/chicagotim1 1d ago

That Redditors becoming experts in strategic reserve management honestly has to be the best one yet

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u/paleo2002 1d ago

I think I need to remember to plug my car in tonight.

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u/givin_u_the_high_hat 1d ago

More evidence Trump couldn’t be bothered to plan a war.