Oil prices are surging again, but this time Biden has way less ammunition to bring them down

• Oil prices are surging again, but the Strategic Petroleum Reserve remains near 40-year lows.
• Last year, the Biden administration drained 180 million barrels from the SPR as oil prices soared.
• Oil's latest uptick has raised fears of persistent inflation and the possibility of more Fed rate hikes.

Oil prices are surging again, but the Biden administration's biggest weapon for bringing them down has much less ammunition.

Last year, the federal government drained 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as oil prices soared in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the turmoil in energy markets that followed.

Flooding the market with all that supply helped bring oil prices down — and helped cool inflation, which had shot up as well.