House Republicans Pass Major Bipartisan Bill That the Chinese Communist Party Will Hate
The Republican-controlled House on Thursday voted to block oil from the country’s emergency stockpile from going to China.
The bill, one of the first introduced by the new GOP majority, would prohibit the Energy Department 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 unanimous Republicans in support.
Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, 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.”
Biden withdrew 180 million barrels from the strategic reserve last year, claiming it was a bid to halt rising gasoline prices amid production cuts by OPEC and a ban on Russian oil imports following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The monthslong sales brought the stockpile to its lowest level since the 1980s. The administration said last month it will start to replenish the reserve now that oil prices have gone down.
McMorris Rodgers accused Biden of using the reserve to “cover up his failed policies” that she said are driving up energy prices and inflation.
“Draining our strategic reserves for political purposes and selling it to China is a significant threat to our national and energy security. This must be stopped,” McMorris Rodgers said.
The measure is the first in a series of GOP proposals aimed at “unleashing American energy production,” McMorris Rodgers said, as Republicans seek to boost U.S. production of oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels.
“There’s more to come. This is just the beginning,” she said.
The Treasury Department estimates that release of oil from the emergency stockpile lowered prices at the pump by up to 40 cents per gallon. Gasoline prices, meanwhile, averaged about $3.27 per gallon on Thursday, down from just over $5 per gallon at their peak in June, according to the AAA auto club.
“By law we are required to select the highest value bid to ensure the best return for taxpayers, and since 2017, the vast majority of oil sold from the reserve is sold to American entities,” the Energy Department said. Over the last five years, less than 3 percent of oil from the strategic reserve has gone to China, officials said.
The House bill now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate. GOP Sen. John Barrasso has introduced a similar measure.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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