The world’s largest supply of crude oil — the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve — has been tossed around like a political football by various presidential administrations over the years, both Democratic and Republican.
The reserve was established in the 1970s as an emergency stop gap to ward off market volatility and keep OPEC in check after it quadrupled the price of oil, leading to widespread gasoline shortages.
Instead, the reserve has often been used for political gain and outside of the emergencies it was intended to temper…