Dems Join GOP to Block Biden From Selling Strategic Oil Reserves to China

On Thursday, dozens of House Democrats joined Republicans to pass legislation to stop the Biden administration selling more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. China or Chinese-owned businesses.

The House passed the bill easily in 331-97 votes. Every Republican voted for it, and 113 Democrats – more than half of the House Democratic caucus – joined the GOP.

This was the second vote of the week in which large numbers of Democrats helped House Republicans pass legislation. More than two-thirds (or more) of House Democrats had voted for Republicans to form a committee to examine U.S. strategic rivalry with China just days before.

Republicans introduced the bill after the Biden administration’s decision Last year, the SPR sold nearly 1,000,000 barrels oil to Unipec America (a U.S.-based Chinese company). The Department of Energy announced that sale in April 2022, and Republicans warned on the House floor that it makes no sense to deliver vast energy resources to entities controlled by America’s largest competitor.

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“America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve is meant for true energy supply disruptions, like those caused by hurricanes and natural disasters, not to help China,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, who will lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee during the new Congress, said.

On Thursday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy led the House Republicans in passing legislation that would prohibit China’s sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserves.
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

“Draining our strategic reserves for political purposes and selling portions of it to China is a significant threat to our national security,” She said. “The administration is not just hurting our own ability to respond to emergencies and national security events, they are actively bolstering the oil reserves of our most dangerous geopolitical adversary: the Chinese Communist Party.”

McMorris rodgers claimed that the Biden administration has released over 200 million barrels of the SPR to lower rising U.S. oil prices over the past year. Inflation and energy crises.”

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She added that some of the oil that was not sold directly to Chinese-owned entities ended up in China’s hands.

“As we know, much of that oil went to China because our refineries and pipelines are full. It now has nowhere to go here,” She said. “Millions more barrels went to overseas traders who eventually sent it to China. We also know that China is ramping up its purchases of crude oil from Russia and the U.S. to boost its own reserves.”

President Biden led a historic decrease in oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The bill states that the Energy secretary will not sell SPR reserve to any entity controlled by the Chinese government. “except on the condition that such petroleum products will not be exports to the People’s Republic of China.”

Although the majority of Democrats voted for it, only Democrats tried to denigrate it in the debate by claiming that China sales are the fault of the GOP because Congress Republicans lifted the crude oil ban in 2015.

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“As a result, our exports of crude oil to China surged, averaging a half billion every day during the last year of the Trump administration,” Rep. Frank Pallone D-N.J.

Republicans countered by pointing out that this policy change occurred under Obama’s administration when Republicans were working alongside that administration. “unleash American energy” Export it all over the world. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky said that the plan has been continued by President Trump. “record production” The exchange of energy was successful.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington will lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She urged lawmakers in the new Congress to pass her bill to prevent the sale to China of Strategic Petroleum Reserves.
(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Guthrie claimed that this has been changed under the Biden Administration and the Democratic Congress. Guthrie also stated that they have been pushing to decrease energy production while supporting record SPR withdrawals.

“The problem we’re facing today is because of President Biden and the Democrats’ in Congress war on American oil,” Guthrie said. “That’s the problem we’re here to address.”

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SPR reserves have been well over 600 million barrels since the beginning of the century. However, they fell to below 600 million barrels in the early 2022 when the Biden administration started selling off their reserves. Late last year, the reserve level dropped to below 400 million barrels.