A maze of crude oil pipes and equipment is seen against a background of American and Texas flags at the Strategic Oil Reserve in Freeport, Texas.
Richard Carson | Reuters
WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill aimed at limiting the president’s ability to withdraw the country’s strategic oil reserves for reasons other than “serious energy supply disruptions.”
The law aims to prevent a repeat of President Joe Biden’s numerous withdrawals from the SPR in 2022, which Republicans claim were intended to lower consumer gas prices ahead of the midterm elections.
The bill passed in a near intra-party vote of 221 to 205 after more than six hours of separate House votes on various amendments.
Entitled the Strategic Production Response Act, passed on Friday, the law sets out a plan for federal agencies to lease federal land for oil and gas production “at the same rate as oil.” bans new drawdowns of the SPR until the
Despite passing the House, the bill is almost certain to pass. It lacks the support to pass it through the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the White House says it will reject Biden if he gets to his desk.
Days before the vote, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told a White House press conference that the bill “would impose unnecessary and useless restrictions on when SPR can be used to support supplies.” said.
“It will not bring measurable benefits to the American people,” Granholm told reporters. “Instead, it will hamper our ability to respond to international emergencies, such as natural disasters or domestic pipeline outages.”
The White House has long argued that its release from the SPR last year was necessary to offset the spike in pump prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, Republicans argue that the 180 million barrels total release for 2022 is excessive, and that individual releases and announcements about future releases were tailored to serve the Democrats’ best political interests. increase.
Last year, total oil reserves fell to about 380 million barrels. This is his lowest level since 1984, raising concerns about energy security.
When Biden took office in 2021, the SPR included 638 million barrels.
Friday’s bill was the second time the Republican-controlled House has passed legislation related to the SPR. The first prohibited the sale of oil reserves to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Passed with bipartisan support.
Following Friday’s passage, the bill’s main sponsor, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Kathy McMorris Rogers, applauded the vote.
“President Biden has turned a long-standing bipartisan strategic asset, the Strategic Oil Reserve, into a political instrument to conceal the consequences of a costly environmental haste agenda,” she said in a statement. .
The Act “provides a path to making energy more affordable and reliable for Americans by preserving the SPR’s important and core purpose: the energy that Americans need in a true emergency.” It’s about providing oil supplies to the US, not draining them for non-urgent political purposes,” she added. .
