Eating the seed oil

Below is a chart that, in retrospect, I really wish I had included in my posts about yearly economic markers.  It's a chart showing the US Strategic Oil Reserves:

Today, since October of 2022 we have been below 400,000 thousand barrels (occasionally buying up enough oil to get to 415,000.  Before 2022, you have to go back to 1984 to get below 400,000 barrels.

The purpose of the Strategic Oil Reserves if to prevent another Oil Embargo like the OPEC Oil Crisis of 1973-4.  It's the nation's emergency energy fund if a crisis cuts off our supply of oil.

And we've been tapping into it- we're currently about 357,000 thousand barrels of oil.

Now, we're tapping into it before the gas prices are high, because of the War with Iran.  Iran has cut off the Strait of Hormuz, which is preventing oil (and other supplies) from the Middle East to the rest of the world.  The prices are rising, and gas prices going higher is always a politics problem.  So the solution is to tap into the reserves to give the country a greater supply of oil, which lowers the price of gas and reduces the political pressure.

The problem is threefold.

1)  This does nothing to solve the source of the problem

2)  We should replace the barrels to bring back the Reservers.  In theory, this will take place in the future when oil is cheaper.  But what if the price of oil doesn't drop anytime soon?  

3)  The key problem.  Once we use these reserves, until they are replaced, we cannot use them again.  So it's causing a temporary fix- but at some point, we'll stop tapping into reserves (or run out).  At that point, the prices will jump, and if there is another crisis, we won't have the reserves to use.

This isn't a party problem- Biden tapped the reserves for millions of barrels of oil because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and he didn't come close to replenshing the reserves when he left office.  It's the equivalent of throwing an expensive party and sticking the next guy with the bill.  And Trump not only hasn't restored the oil, he's tapping it even further.

Much like us National Debt, we're making a mess and demanding our children clean it up.