Forty Million Barrels More From the Strategic Reserve, With the Midterms in View

Bloomberg reports that the US ordered another release of oil from its emergency reserves and urged European nations to release as well, framing the move against fuel prices that are surging less than two months before the midterm elections. The Department of Energy statement puts the offer at up to 40 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — supplies sold from a fixed stock rather than produced, which is why a drawdown is one of the faster levers available to a president and one of the harder ones to reverse. Asking allies to release in parallel spreads both the volume and the political cover.