The US government decided (maybe correctly, IDK) some years ago that their strategic helium reserves were too high (and thus expensive).

There were several announcements, a lot of discussion, and a long process before they started selling it. It was also a temporary action, with a well known end-date (that TBH, I never looked at). It had a known and constant small pressure over investments, it wasn't something that destabilized a market.

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j-bos 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Isn't it like underground? Why would it be expensive?

	▲	atombender 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It wasn't. It was injected into the porous rock at the Bush Dome Reservoir [1], which acted as a natural container of helium. The strategic helium reserve was "expensive" because buying helium for storage was funded by treasury debt, but it was expensive purely only on paper. [1] https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bush-dome-reserv...