Oil is fungible and a global market. News headlines have already stated that prior US strategic reserve releases were shipped to China. The oil released from the SPR is sold to ANYONE who bids, including to foreign countries. It doesn't even affect US gas prices, it affects global prices, which in turn affect US prices by a tiny amount.

So dumping the reserve only has a relatively small effect on prices, since if you try to push down US gas prices below the global average, arbitrage experts will simply start diverting US oil to other countries to profit from the price differential.

The purpose of the reserve was to protect America in times of national energy crisis brought on by geopolitical shocks to oil availability like that which led to rationing in the 1970s. We are nowhere near there. We just have some elevated prices for a relatively brief period with no threat to the greater economy.

Instead, the only real threat here is to the Democrats, who see gas prices as a proxy for inflation (unfortunately, too many Americans follow this logic even though inflation is still horrific in MANY other areas) and who are desperate to cover up the perception of inflation with a temporary band aid which doesn't even make much difference just to boost their polling for the election. Pathetic and anti-American.