Trump: to "fill up" the US strategic oil reserve

President Trump of the United States has stated plans to fill up the country's strategic oil reserve, which had previously dropped to the lowest levels since the 1980s under the leadership of the Biden administration. Trump vowed on Monday in his inaugural speech at the Capitol to "lower prices, refill America's strategic oil reserve, and export American energy globally." It is reported that the maximum capacity of the US strategic oil reserve is about 700 million barrels, but it currently stands at around 394.4 million barrels after record sales during the Biden administration. Measures taken by the Biden administration to reduce the strategic oil reserve include selling 180 million barrels of oil in an attempt to lower gasoline prices after the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. Although the Biden administration has slowly begun to replenish the US strategic oil reserve, they have run out of funds to buy more oil after purchasing around 600 million barrels. This will require the US Congress to pass a bill to allocate more funds to the Department of Energy's oil account. It is worth noting that Trump also announced that he will declare a national energy emergency. He reiterated his support for increasing oil and gas production as he did during his presidential campaign. A White House official stated that the national energy emergency will "unlock a variety of different powers" for producing more natural resources, but did not disclose the details of which powers Trump will utilize.