Senate Moves To Block Biden Administation From Selling Oil From SPR To Adversaries

On Thursday, the Senate moved to block the Biden administration from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to China, North Korea, Iran and Russia — adding the ban as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Surprisingly, the measure actually received bipartisan support — passing with a vote of 85-12. The effort was spearheaded by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).

Under President Joe Biden’s leadership, the SPR has been drained to a shocking 40-year low. At a time when there is a strong possibility of World War III with Russia or China, and thus the reserves would become necessary, Biden has drained the SPR for several reasons — including to offset rising prices of oil and gas around the country just before the midterm elections.

In a press release, Cruz condemned the Biden administration for selling off oil from the SPR to communist China.

“We know China has been amassing the largest stockpile of crude in the world. Nevertheless, last year, the United States sold off part of our reserves to China. I have been working with Senator Manchin to prohibit such inexplicably reckless moves in a bipartisan way. Our amendment prevents the federal government from selling oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea. We should not be selling our emergency oil reserves to our adversaries,” he wrote.

Manchin — who is considered to be a moderate Democrat, as he often sides with conservatives and criticizes Biden’s energy policies — also released a statement about the amendment.

“Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. ramped up production and exports to help meet global demand,” he wrote. “It had been devastating to the world. China, on the other hand, stockpiled oil and held back refinery production and while China was stockpiling, one of its state-owned companies purchased over 1.4 million barrels from the United States of America, the people of our great country, from our own stock of reserves. That’s what we’re trying to stop.”

The Republican-controlled House passed a similar measure back in January, and the GOP lawmakers were surprisingly joined by more than 100 Democrats after concerns were raised about the Biden administration selling off almost one million barrels of oil from the SPR to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled crude oil giant.

According to The Daily Wire, “As part of a 180-million-barrel drawdown through which the government sought to stabilize global oil markets and combat rising gasoline prices, the Biden administration announced in July 2022 a number of contracts for the purchase of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Among those contracts to 14 companies was one for about 950,000 barrels awarded to Unipec America, a subsidiary of Communist Party-owned Sinopec Corp.”

Cruz also emphasized the true reason behind the creation of the SPR in his press release, noting that it was for emergencies and expressing concern about the sales “undermining our national security.”

“The original intent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was to ensure that America had sufficient oil reserves in the event of an emergency,” Cruz wrote. “We are unnecessarily and dangerously undermining our national security in any instance that we sell any part of this stockpile to the Chinese Communist Party or any company under its control.”