Administration against Congresswoman Horn’s oil purchase plan

 

While Oklahoma congresswoman Kendra Horn is pushing a plan for the government to buy up cheap U.S. oil for the country’s strategic oil reserve, she and her supporters have run into opposition with the Trump administration.

Energy officials are expressing doubts the administration will create a workable plan to help the industry with such a crash that has hit the industry resulting in well shutins and thousands of jobs lost.

The Trump administration has rejected the idea of buying oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and according to reports, shot down the idea of eliminating royalty payments for energy produced on federal lands.

 

The latest idea floated last week, according to POLITICO calls for the Treasury Department to create a new fund to lend money to struggling oil producers — and take partial ownership stakes in the companies while requiring them to reduce their output. “This is whack-a-mole stuff,” said one industry source. “There is a huge interest to ‘do something’ to help. But it all sounds good until step two.”

Oklahoma’s 5th district Rep. Horn, a Democrat, introduced bipartisan legislation earlier in April to support the energy industry by providing $3 billion in funding to buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

She and Reps. Lizzie Fletcher and Michael Burgess of Texas were the lead sponsors.

“Right now, Oklahomans are facing a historic health and economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and made worse by the destabilization of energy markets,” said Congresswoman  Horn. “As workers in the oil and gas industry struggle to make ends meet, our nation is still counting on them to power hospitals and essential services. We must take action now to help an industry that supports nearly a fifth of our state’s workforce and fuels our nation’s economy. Today’s bipartisan bill does just that by providing resources to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

The legislation will allow the Department of Energy to purchase oil, which will provide relief for domestic oil producers and help stabilize the energy markets.

 

Co-sponsors of the bill include: Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar, Roger Williams, Vicente Gonzalez, Mike Conaway, Marc Veasey and Bill Flores who were joined by Rep. Kelly Armstrong of Alabama.

The text of the legislation is available here.

Source: POLITICO/Rep. Horn