- Environment
- Reference
What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
Prompted by a crippling oil embargo in the 1970s, the U.S. created the world’s largest oil reserve. But in a world shifting to renewables to combat climate change, its future is uncertain.
In late November 1973, the world was just beginning to feel the fallout from the Yom Kippur War, a conflict between Israel and its neighbors Egypt and Syria.
To punish the United States and other western nations for supporting Israel during the war, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut off oil supplies—tripling the average price of imported crude oil. By November 25, the crisis had grown so dire that then-President Richard Nixon addressed the nation, asking citizens to lower their thermostats, refrain from driving on Sundays, and go easy on their Christmas light displays.
In the years that followed, the U.S. pursued a policy of energy independence, to protect it from such crises in the
