US petrol prices have climbed to 36% above pre-war levels, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now sits at its lowest level since 1983, CNN reported on 25 July1. Brent Crude crossed $100 a barrel on 23 July before easing to $98.38 as mediation reports circulated.
Congress created the reserve after the 1973 oil embargo, and it sits in salt caverns along the Gulf Coast so that a president facing a supply shock can put barrels on the market without asking anyone's permission. Drawing it down to a 1983 level removes that option at the moment a blockade the United States is itself enforcing keeps crude near three figures. Refilling it means buying at those prices, which no administration does willingly in an election cycle.
Pump prices are also the channel through which this war reaches American voters who are not following it. Congressional opposition to the campaign has been measurable and unable to bind the executive; petrol at a third above its pre-war price does not need a roll call to apply pressure. The two constraints now converge on the same building: an air campaign paused for want of munitions, and a fuel price rising because the sea lane that campaign closed has not reopened.
