A politicalnews.me press release states: “Sen. Ron Wyden, D- Ore., asked the Department of Energy to follow through on a recommendation from the Government Accountability Office to study the size and make-up of the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve – the largest emergency supply of crude oil in the world.”  

“In a report released Monday, the GAO noted that increased domestic crude oil production, combined with decreasing net oil imports as well as industry developments and related public policies implemented over the last 40 years raise serious questions about the necessary size of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Given these changes, the GAO recommended the DOE, which is responsible for maintaining the reserve, initiate an evaluation.”  

“’The recent shale boom is having a profound effect on United States energy policy,’ Wyden wrote in the letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. ‘In fact, some policy provisions put in place as recently as 2007 are now at best irrelevant, or at worst detrimental, to national environmental and economic goals, while much of our law in relation to oil and gas conservation and reserves comes from the 1970s.’”