Why the U.S. Government Is Tapping In to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Hurricane Harvey did untold amounts of damage to Texas -- preliminary estimates for the cost of recovery are around $190 billion.

In this clip from Industry Focus, Motley Fool analysts Sarah Priestley and Taylor Muckerman explain why that total is so huge, and what it means for the oil industry that Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced it was lending 500,000 barrels of oil to producer Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX). Find out what the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is and how it functions, what investors need to be aware of about this loan, how this compares to other times the SPR has been tapped in the wake of a disaster, and more.

A full transcript follows the video.

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Source: Fool.com