1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve needs to be refilled now, and Congress must force the Trump administration to act. The reserve has dropped from 415 million barrels in February to under 285 million barrels today — a 30% collapse in six months, the lowest level since the early 1980s. Brent crude is sitting above $100 a barrel, 47% higher than when the war with Iran began. Every day of delay makes replenishment more expensive and more difficult. The Venezuela deal is not a real answer. Energy experts at Brookings, the Atlantic Council, and Rice University's Baker Institute all say the Venezuelan fields under discussion are years — some a decade or more — from producing usable oil. The heavy crude Venezuela does produce isn't even compatible with our salt cavern storage. Brookings' Samantha Gross put it plainly: pumping too much out of those caverns can physically damage them. We are burning through our emergency buffer with no credible plan to replace it. Congress needs to mandate a concrete replenishment timeline and fund it. The administration has exhausted its short-term tools — the Jones Act waiver, early winter blends — and Ben Cahill of the Atlantic Council says "all those buffers have really been worn away." A depleted reserve leaves every American family exposed to the next supply shock. Do your job and make sure this reserve gets rebuilt.