In an effort to lower high gas prices, the Biden administration released oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve; yet, it later sold 950,000 million barrels of that oil to China, our main international rival.
In a letter to Biden on Friday, seven Republican members of the House, including Ronny Jackson (Texas) and Ralph Norman (South Carolina), announced that they had opened a formal inquiry of the current administration.
The letter read, “Policies and actions by your Administration have deviated the SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] off course from its original intent to provide cover for your war on domestic energy production.
It is clear that your administration wishes to use the SPR as a stopgap for your policies—policies that have crippled American energy independence.
It is troubling that the United States is exporting SPR crude to China as China continues to align itself with our adversaries.”
When he signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act in 1975, then-President Gerald Ford approved the establishment of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The SPR is now a set of four locations with deep underground storage caverns built under salt domes along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, according to the Department of Energy.
But the deep storage caves aren’t quite as filled as they once were. The stocks have dropped below 500 million barrels since Biden started using the SPR, which is the lowest level since 1986.
In addition to demanding to know if there have been any additional sales of the SPR oil to foreign foes, they are requesting that the White House give over a large number of papers pertaining to the decision-making procedure behind the China sales.
House Democrats Block Legislative Amendment To Prevent US Oil Sales To China https://t.co/IwEoFWuAuv
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 22, 2022
Friday, the White House responded, claiming that Biden had no direct role in the transactions, according to spokesperson Ian Sams.
“Some Republican members of Congress are suggesting that the president and the Biden administration are funneling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to specific foreign companies for nefarious reasons. This accusation is ridiculous and false, and if they took the initiative to examine some basic facts, they would see that.”
