US Strategic Petroleum Reserve won’t be tapped to ease fuel prices, and Bitcoin miners are feeling the heat

The US government has decided to keep its hands off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve despite rising fuel prices tied to the ongoing Hormuz crisis. Think of the SPR as America’s financial emergency fund, except instead of cash, it’s roughly 308 million barrels of crude oil sitting in salt caverns along the Gulf Coast. That 308 million barrel figure represents the lowest SPR inventory since March 1983. Officials have signaled they’ll take a conservative approach, preserving remaining stocks rather than drawing them down further to provide short-term price relief. How the reserve got this thin Approximately 352 million barrels have been withdrawn over the past four years through a series of authorized releases. The most significant single drawdown was a 172 million barrel release ordered by President Trump in March 2026, a direct response to geopolitical disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz is arguably the most important oil chokepoint on Earth, with roughly a fifth of global petroleum consumption flowing through its narrow waters. When that strait effectively closed amid the US-Iran conflict, coordinated emergency stock releases from the International Energy A...