The Strategic Petroleum Reserve & How Short Is Your Attention Span?
October 17, 2023
The Strategic Impacts Of Petroleum Sales
During the oil crisis of the 1970s, the U.S. established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), an emergency stockpile of crude oil set aside for use during future oil supply disruptions. The reserve, which held a peak of 727 million barrels during the Obama administration, now holds about half of its maximum capacity, with just 351 million barrels remaining.
How did we get here? Last year, the Biden administration began selling off oil from the SPR at a rate of 1 million barrels per day for 180 days. The release of oil from the reserve was an attempt to temper rising fuel prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now, though, that sale is coming back to bite the U.S. as the conflict in Israel looks ready to destabilize the Middle East.
As you’ll read a little later, Iran seems poised to jump into the Israel-Palestine conflict in response to the IDF’s planned ground invasion of Gaza. A larger conflict like this would likely shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which sees 20 million barrels of oil exports flow through it every day. The selloff of SPR oil, according to one expert, “leaves the U.S. in a position of relying on Saudi Arabia and others with spare capacity to ramp supply in the event of a cutoff” of Iranian oil.
However, said another analyst, “Since oil is not produced in Israel or the Gaza Strip, the outbreak of hostilities and its impact on the broader global oil and energy markets should be limited in scope and duration. As long as the conflict remains contained and does not directly involve Iran, the price of oil should ease back toward pre-conflict levels.” However, heading into a U.S. presidential election and knowing just how much Biden’s approval rating relies on gas prices, it’s unclear what political consequences even a temporary spike in oil prices could have on the U.S.
Some Good News
- TikTok steps up efforts to counter misinformation about Israel-Hamas war (CNN)
- Using technology to open up wilderness trails to people with disabilities (NPR)
Iran On The Verge
- The death toll in the Middle East continues to increase as the world waits for the IDF’s promised ground invasion of Gaza. At least 2,800 people have been killed in Gaza, with almost 10,000 more Palestinians injured and about 1 million displaced by the conflict. The death toll in Israel has also grown to over 1,400 people killed by Hamas’ massive attack on Israeli civilians last weekend.
- In Gaza, which has been besieged by Israel since the outset of the conflict, basic necessities like food, water, and electricity are running low. While Israel made headlines over the weekend for resuming its water supplies to Gaza, reports on the ground say that the water hasn’t actually reached Palestinian civilians. “People are now consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, triggering serious concerns over the spread of waterborne diseases,” said the UNRWA on Monday, adding that its own staff in Gaza have been restricted to just one liter per day for drinking and washing. Adult males, on average, need about 3.7 liters of drinking water daily.
- Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden is set to travel to Israel on Wednesday amidst fears that the conflict will draw aggression from Iran and Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group that controls southern Lebanon. Hezbollah and the IDF have been exchanging fire at the Israel-Lebanon border, while Iran has warned of an escalation if Israel conducts its planned ground invasion of Gaza.
The Type Of Friend You’d Leave Your Country For
- This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to conduct a rare diplomatic journey outside of former Soviet territory, attending China’s Belt and Road Forum in Beijing as the meeting’s guest of honor. At the summit, Putin is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, one of his few remaining allies.
- According to one professor of international relations, attending the forum will allow Putin to “achieve international exposure … and show that Russia still has a strong friend in China.” For Beijing, he added, “having an important international player like Putin to join the BRI summit is also politically important.”
- Despite the challenges of sticking together throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s diplomatic skirmishes with the U.S., Russia and China have never been closer. In 2022, the two powers saw record trade with one another, with continued growth this year. They’ve also held more and more joint military drills, pitting the two countries together against the West.
Additional World News
- Exclusive: Americans want US to help get Gaza civilians out of harm’s way-Reuters/Ipsos poll (Reuters)
- Fearing Escalation, Biden Seeks to Deter Iran and Hezbollah (NYT, $)
- India’s top court is set to rule on same-sex marriage. Here’s what that could mean for millions of people (CNN)
- Former Bank of China boss arrested on bribery charges (BBC)
- UN agency: There aren’t enough body bags in Gaza (Politico)
- Liberia election results: George Weah and Joseph Boakai neck and neck (BBC)
- Russia returns four Ukrainian children in Qatari deal (BBC)
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
A Happy Ending To A Tragic Story
- Lawyers representing families separated at the border during the Trump administration’s 2017 and 2018 heyday of deportations have reached a settlement with the federal government. The agreement, filed on Monday in federal court in San Diego, will allow the families to remain in the U.S. and apply for asylum.
- Several thousand children were taken from their families in an attempt to send a message and deter people from crossing the border – it turned out that hundreds of U.S.-born children were also detained in shelters or sent to foster families while their parents faced criminal charges.
How Many Gags Does It Take To Silence A President?
- A federal judge issued a gag order on former President Trump on Monday to control what Trump can say about special counsel Jack Smith and his investigation into the attempts to overturn the election. The order restricts Trump’s ability to publicly target court personnel, potential witnesses, or the special counsel and his staff.
- “This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses. This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said, adding, “His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their jobs.” The government had also requested that Trump not be allowed to talk negatively about Washington, D.C., or the DOJ as a whole, but those stipulations were left out of Monday’s decision.
Additional USA Reads
- 6-year-old Palestinian American boy is killed in anti-Muslim attack in Illinois, authorities say (NBC)
- First DeSantis-chartered flights from Israel land in Florida (Politico)
- Biden postpones Colorado trip for national security meetings (CNN)
- Third GOP primary debate will be hosted by NBC News on Nov. 8 (Axios)
- Trump dominates GOP money race, DeSantis spends heavily, George Santos goes negative: Takeaways from new campaign finance reports (CNN)
- Chuck Schumer says the delegation he’s leading was rushed to a shelter amid rocket fire in Israel (NBC)
- UPenn in crisis over antisemitism allegations: Jon Huntsman is the latest donor to stop giving, and a board member resigns (CNN)
Paying Attention To Your Attention Span
- These days, our attention spans seem to be shrinking – or at least, that’s what it feels like. TikTok, the world’s #1 most downloaded app, is almost entirely dedicated to short video clips, newspaper articles are shrinking, and the average movie shot is just five seconds long. Additionally, younger people seem to have adopted a habit of multitasking while tasking, with a TV running in the background while they work on their laptop and try to participate in a text conversation at the same time, for example.
- According to Gloria Mark, an attention researcher at the University of California, Irvine, shorter attention spans come with three downsides: “The first is that people make more errors when they do attention shifting; second downside is that it takes longer to do something, ’cause we have to reorient to every new task every time we shift; the third downside – maybe this is the worst of all – is that stress increases. When people are working on multiple tasks and they have to shift their attention, their blood pressure rises.”
- While we may feel like our attention spans are shrinking, the scientific jury is still out on whether that feeling is actually fact. A 2003 study found that subjects averaged about two-and-a-half minutes on any screen before shifting their attention when they were using computers, decreasing to just 47 seconds per screen in more recent studies. However, one Cornell psychology professor emeritus claims that “there’s no data for that,” pointing to things like young people’s marathon gaming sessions, which can often stretch for hours on end.
Additional Reads
- Choosing a college is harder than ever. Here’s a new way to get a clear view of campus culture (USA Today)
- Why American Evangelicals Back Israel: ‘Neutrality Isn’t an Option’ (NYT, $)
- Scoop: Oprah pitched a White House run with Mitt Romney, book reveals (Axios)
- A bear snuck into a Connecticut home and stole lasagna from a freezer (USA Today)
- Trump sues over Steele dossier, alleging reputational ‘damage and distress’ (WaPo, $)
- Cosmic melody: Astronomical data can be converted to music, revealing the universe like never before (Salon)