Cushing, Oklahoma, dubs itself the pipeline crossroads of the world. The tagline is emblazoned on a giant roadside sign fashioned out of pip
People are understandably paying attention to the price of gas. But a figure that's even more concerning is the dwindling supply of oil. What's going on in Cushing, Oklahoma is a warning of things to come.
Cushing, Oklahoma, dubs itself the pipeline crossroads of the world. The tagline is emblazoned on a giant roadside sign fashioned out of pipes on the corner of Main Street and South Stiles Road. It has a valve and everything. [ ... ] Cushing is the hub of America’s energy market. It literally provides the oil plumbing for the United States. It’s where America’s benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil is priced and warehoused. From there, it’s piped to refineries around the country. In normal times, Cushing stores around 40 million barrels of oil with capacity of up to 75 million. These are not normal times. Cushing’s current inventory is 21.6 million barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s dangerously close to operational stress levels, the tipping point at which Cushing struggles to supply all of its customers with the oil they demand. When Cushing’s reserves get below 20 million, they effectively hit empty, scraping the bottom of the barrel of what is largely unusable sludge.
So the US is just 1.61 million barrels from being down to "unusable sludge".
The New York Times published a chart showing the rapidly dwindling global supply of oil.
This is the most rapid drop of the past seven years. The supply got lower for a while in 2023 due to the effects of sanctions on Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. But the decline was slower and markets eventually adjusted. With Trump's Iran war, there's no end in sight and much more oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz than is exported by Russia.
So what is Trump doing about all this? Every week, sometimes more than once a week, he oscillates from threatening to destroy Iranian civilization to proclaiming a new peace deal. While I've not been counting, it seems like there's been close to three dozen such abrupt shifts.
As for energy sources, Trump is again championing the moribund coal industry. He's putting a QAnon conspiracy nut in charge of a new coal project.
‘This is not normal’: Trump leans on MAGA organizer to revive coal
Even if something miraculously came of this (SPOILER: it won't), it would be way too late to help with the current crisis.
Trump created this mess and refuses to clean it up properly.