Schumer presses Trump to tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid, amid record-high oil prices

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on President Trump to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid high oil prices due to the war with Iran.

"The instability created by Trump in this war is already hitting families in their wallets," Schumer said Sunday, NBC New York reported. "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is for moments just like this."

"But Trump, instead of using this tool, which so many other presidents have used to lower prices at the pump -- he's saying the market will heal very quickly," Schumer added.

Schumer urged Trump to "listen to your average driver who's paying 40 cents more a gallon, that 'prices are healing very quickly.' Listen to your truck driver, who drives a truck for a living, who has said, if the price keeps going up, you may go out of business. And you say, oh, 'they'll heal very quickly.'"

Schumer's comments came just hours before oil prices hit, then exceeded $100 a barrel.

Trump said Sunday: “We’ve got a lot of oil. Our country has a tremendous amount. There’s a lot of oil out there. That’ll get healed very quickly.”

Only on four occasions has the U.S. authorized emergency releases from the SPR. The last authorized emergency release was in 2022 under the Biden administration, amid supply disruptions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That year was also the last time oil and gas prices topped $100.

The average price for a gallon of gas nationwide Sunday was up to $3.45 a gallon for regular unleaded, up more than 46 cents in a week, AAA said.

Schumer cited recent spikes in local gas prices. Sunday's average for gas prices in New York City reached $3.44 a gallon for regular unleaded, up from $3.00 one week earlier, while Long Island's was $3.31 a gallon, up from $2.89 per gallon from the prior week, and New Jersey's was $3.31 a gallon, up more than 40 cents, AAA said.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CBS's "Face The Nation" on Sunday that "we're more than happy to use (the Reserve) if it's needed ... "it's a logistics issue."

"Where do they need oil? They need oil at refineries in Europe and in Asia. And that's why we took a very pragmatic step. There's over 100 million barrels of floating Russian crude waiting in line to deliver to China," Wright said.