WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Thursday to block supplies of oil from the country’s emergency stockpile to China.
The bill, one of the first to be introduced by the new GOP majority, would ban the Department of Energy from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to companies owned or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party. It passed easily, 331–97, with 113 Democrats joining the unanimous Republicans in support.
Rep. Kathy McMorris, Washington, the new head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the bill would help end what she called “President Joe Biden’s abuse of our strategic reserves.”
Last year, Biden withdrew 180 million barrels from the strategic reserve to stem the rise in gasoline prices amid OPEC production cuts and a ban on Russian oil imports following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Monthly sales brought inventories to their lowest level since the 1980s. Last month, the administration said it would begin replenishing the reserve after oil prices fell.
McMorris Rogers accused Biden of using the reserve to “cover up his failed policies,” which she says drive up energy prices and inflation.
“Draining our strategic reserves for political purposes and selling them to China is a serious threat to our national and energy security. This has to be stopped,” McMorris Rogers said.
The measure is the first in a series of GOP proposals aimed at “boosting America’s energy production,” McMorris Rogers said, as Republicans seek to boost U.S. production of oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels.
“That’s not all. This is just the beginning,” she said.
Democrats, including former New Jersey head of energy and commerce Frank Pallone, said Republicans are trying to fix a problem they created. China is one of many potential adversaries buying US oil since the Republican-led Congress lifted the export ban in 2015.
“If the Republicans were serious about resolving this issue, they would put forward a bill to ban all oil exports to China,” Pallone said, adding that sales from the strategic reserve accounted for about 2% of US oil sold to China last year.
“If we really want to solve the problem of China using American oil to build up its reserves, let’s take a serious look at this, and not sidestep this issue because the Republicans are afraid of the wrath of big oil,” Pallone said.
The current process allows crude oil from the strategic reserve to be sold to companies that make the highest bids, including US subsidiaries of foreign oil companies, and they can then export that crude oil overseas. Last year, millions of barrels of oil from US reserves were exported to China, including to a subsidiary of Chinese state oil company Sinopec.
The Department of Energy said in a statement Thursday that Biden “rightly authorized the emergency use” of the Strategic Reserve, also known as the SPR, to address supply disruptions and “provide relief to American families and refineries when it’s most needed.”
The Treasury Department estimates that the release of oil from the emergency stock has reduced gas station prices to 40 cents a gallon. Meanwhile, gasoline prices on Thursday averaged about $3.27 a gallon, compared to just over $5 a gallon at their peak in June, according to the Auto Club AAA.
“We are required by law to select the highest value offer to provide the best return for taxpayers, and since 2017 the vast majority of oil sold from the reserve is sold to US entities,” the Energy Department said. Over the past five years, officials say less than 3% of the oil in the strategic reserve has gone to China.
The House bill is now heading to the Democratic-controlled Senate. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming introduced a similar measure.
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