Energy experts warn Hurricane Harvey shows the need for America to maintain its strategic oil reserve, an emergency fund that Congress has used in recent years to pay for deficit reduction and other unrelated items.
The Energy Department on Thursday released 1 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Phillip 66’s Lake Charles refinery in Louisiana, as the remnants of Harvey barreled through the Gulf Coast, causing a surge in gasoline prices.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Friday his department released an additional 3.5 million barrels from the reserve to large refineries owned by Marathon Petroleum Corporation and Valero.
The Harvey-induced emergency releases of oil are rare — the first since 2012 — and small, representing a fraction of the nearly 680 million barrels of crude stored in reserve.
But experts say Harvey highlights the continued importance of the oil reserve, even in an era where the U.S. produces more of its own oil from fracking, and relies less on imports.
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