Arkansas Trucking Association

Tapping the Fuel Reserves

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and fuel prices soar at the fastest rate ever recorded by the Energy Department, President Biden on March 31 announced an unprecedented release of crude oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The administration will put 1 million additional barrels on the market per day on average — every day — for the next six months. This follows the second largest release from the SPR on record just last November, which was 50 million barrels. The Department of Energy will use the revenue from the release to restock the SPR, a U.S. government complex of four sites with deep underground storage caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts.

On March 14, the national average price of a gallon of diesel hit a record high of $5.25. When adjusted for inflation, prices are still lower than the all-time highs of 2008; but the Department of Energy warns it has never seen retail fuel prices increase so quickly on a percentage basis over a three-week period.

The White House emphasized that all of this is a short-term solution, and stressed the need to transition to clean energy.

Department of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement, “Putin’s actions in Ukraine and the resulting disruptions to global energy markets have demonstrated the urgent need to accelerate our clean energy transition, which will make our country more energy independent and much less vulnerable to the whims of dictators.”