Thanks and actually that links through to the contemporary reporting in March 25, 2020

Funding to Refill Oil Reserve Cut From Stimulus But Could Return

https://archive.ph/LI6XR

Funding for President Donald Trump’s plan to fill up the nation’s emergency oil reserve to help struggling drillers cope with the price crash failed to make it into the latest stimulus legislation but could return in other forms.

Lawmakers eager to get the stimulus package to the president essentially opted to defer a fight over whether to pair the oil purchase with funding for clean energy. But the issue could arise as Congress takes up additional coronavirus-related legislation in coming weeks.

In a letter to caucus members, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer claimed victory after blocking a “bailout for big oil.” A previous Republican draft of the bill contained $3 billion to top up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

So brass tacks, what is it that Trump's actually out there doing, which represents him wanting to buy all this oil? Here's the document which explains what Trump's admin has in mind.

Solicitation To Purchase Crude Oil For The SPR

https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-executes-direction-president-trump-announces-solicitation-purchase-crude

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At the direction of the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, the Department of Energy (DOE) will fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to its maximum capacity by purchasing 77 million barrels of American-made crude oil. Today, DOE announced a solicitation for the purchase of an initial 30 million barrels to begin filling the SPR. Solicitations for additional purchases will follow.

“DOE is moving quickly to support U.S. oil producers facing potentially catastrophic losses from the impacts of COVID-19 and the intentional disruption to world oil markets by foreign actors,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette.

Under this initial solicitation, DOE will purchase up to 30 million barrels of sweet and sour crude oil with a focus on small to midsize U.S. oil producers.

“The small to midsize oil producers, which are the focus of the initial crude oil purchase, employ thousands of Americans,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes. “These businesses have been particularly hard hit by recent events but under President Trump’s leadership, we are taking swift action to assist hard hit producers and deliver strong returns to the taxpayer.”

Having (thank you) concluded that this is based on real information, then our next step is to consider the argument being made.

Let's learn a few things about the strategic petroleum reserve, the SPR.

https://www.energy.gov/ceser/spr-quick-facts

Average price paid for oil in the Reserve - $29.70 per barrel

Drawdown Capability

• Maximum nominal drawdown capability - 4.4 million barrels per day
• Time for oil to enter U.S. market - 13 days from Presidential decision

Detailed monthly storage levels chart and data

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCSSTUS1&f=M

The weekly (?) rendered jpg from the federal governement which is the authoritiative source for the current supply

https://www.spr.doe.gov/dir/dir.html

Now that we have some facts and context, let's look again at Trump's decision.

In March 2020, there were 634,967 thousand barrels of crude oil in storage.

The most America has ever, ever had was 726k thousand barrels during 2010.

The least we've had, in the modern era, is right now at 359,600 thousand barrels.

So Trump's decision to buy should be viewed in the light of - it's 2020 and we're close to having the most full storage we've ever had.

Why does Trump want to do it? According to the Bloomberg links, it's to "to help struggling drillers cope with the price crash" - something which Schumer is then quoted as calling a “bailout for big oil.”

Trump's appointee's retort to Schumer:

“The small to midsize oil producers, which are the focus of the initial crude oil purchase, employ thousands of Americans,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes.

So that's the debate taking place in 2020: oil producers are struggling to cope with a price-crash, and Trump wants to bail out the oil companies because they employ lots of people.

Trump's and Schumer's decision should be examined in that context - should America's coronavirus bailouts have included cash for Big Oil who were experiencing a slump in demand?

I don't think it should have. I think when demand skyrockets and oil price rises, the American public have to spend money releasing oil from the SPA, so it costs us and makes money for Exxon. So, when the price falls, Exxon should have to privatise the loss for the public gain.

So u/P-38lightning which part do you disagree with?

Aren't you weirded out that none of this was explained in the gateway pundit link? Doesn't it all seem like highly useful context? Do you feel silly for posting the completely fake OP, now that you know all this?