House Republicans will work to unleash American energy dominance and protect our national security by voting on the Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act.

As a much-needed check on the Biden administration’s reckless war on American energy, House Republicans are fighting to ensure NO oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is sold to Communist China. Countering China’s economic dominance is one of America’s greatest geopolitical challenges. Today, House Republicans will hold them accountable and work to end the Biden administration’s appeasement.

THE PROTECTING AMERICA’S STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE FROM CHINA ACT TOPLINE:

• This legislation prevents the Secretary of Energy from selling any SPR oil to an entity affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or any entity that intends to export it to China.
  • Over the past two years, House Democrats and Joe Biden launched an unprecedented war on American energy that caused gas prices to reach historic highs and compromised our nation’s emergency preparedness by draining America’s SPR to the lowest level in nearly four decades.
  • The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was created for national emergencies—not political expediency.
  • Not only did Joe Biden compromise our energy security by draining our emergency reserves in the midst of an energy crisis, but he risked our national security by allowing these crucial reserves to be sold to Communist China—especially as China continued its close economic ties with Russia leading up to and during their invasion of Ukraine.
  • The Biden administration still has NO plan to halt its anti-energy regulatory agenda or unleash domestic oil and gas production. Instead, Joe Biden has chosen to cede our energy dominance to foreign countries and aid dangerous adversaries.

THE FACTS ABOUT BIDEN’S WAR ON AMERICAN ENERGY:

• The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was created for weather events or national security emergencies.
  • In March 2020, President Trump directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to purchase 30 million barrels as he worked to fill the SPR to its maximum capacity.
  • Our SPR has now been depleted by 36%, the lowest level since 1984, following Joe Biden’s release of 180 MILLION barrels of oil last year.
    • The total release was the largest drawdown of our emergency oil reserves ever.
    • This move followed President Biden’s release of 30 millionbarrels in early March, and 50 million barrels of oil in November of 2021, which did nothing to prevent a spike in energy prices.
  • Over one year after the first announcement of an SPR drawdown, the Biden administration announced a so-called plan to replenish these reserves that does not include ending its anti-energy policies in order to increase production.
• Last year, Biden’s DOE sold over one million barrels of SPR oil to a CCP affiliated company—even as Americans faced skyrocketing prices at the pump.
  • This sale was also made during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, during which Russia and China still maintained a close trade relationship referred to as having “no limits.”
  • The 50-million-barrel SPR release in November 2021 was supposed to be in tandem with other countries, including China. In reality, China ramped up its purchases of crude oil from Russia and the United States to boost its own reserves, even as oil prices surged.
  • China reportedly has the largest reserve of crude oil in the world with over 900 million barrels and is continuing to build up its reserves using Russian oil as well.
  • Now, Xi Jinping has ensured that China and Russia’s economic bond will grow even stronger.
• On day one of Joe Biden’s presidency, he launched his war on American energy when he killed the Keystone XL pipeline, which could have supplied 830,000 thousand barrels of oil per day from Canada to U.S. refineries.
• Biden is currently sitting on over 4,800 pending Applications for Permits to Drill.
• The Biden administration has continued to thwart federal land and offshore lease sales for oil and gas development over the past two years and has hindered the creation of pipelines and large-scale refineries.
• As of September 2022, Biden had leased fewer acres of federal and offshore land for domestic oil and gas production than any other president since the end of World War II.