Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and every member of Oklahoma’s U.S. House delegation have obvious differences when it comes to protecting the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve.
A week after all five Oklahoma Representatives voted in support of H.R. 22- the Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act, Granholm offered push back against the GOP pan to put stipulations on pulling oil out of the strategic reserve. She contended the bill will curtail the use of a key security tool and also drive up prices at the gasoline pump.
The measure was approved on a 331-97 vote and one of Oklahoma’s delegation, Republican Rep. Frank Lucas argued the Act is a step in the right direction to unleashing American energy production.
Granholm says otherwise.
“This bill would significantly weaken this critical energy security tool, resulting in more oil supply shortages in times of crisis and higher gasoline prices for Americans,” she wrote in a letter reported by Reuters and obtained by The Hill.
Granholm also contends the decision last year by President Biden to release oil from the reserve brought gasoline prices down from 17 to 42 cents a gallon.
She claimed the GOP-sponsored legislation will only “delay such critical action and increase prices for Americans when energy disruptions occur.”
But there were other political aspects involved in the issue as Rep. Lucas pointed out.
“As well as tying the hands and limiting the U.S.’s ability to respond to energy disruptions, the Biden Administration is bolstering the oil reserves of the Chinese Communist Party, who continues to ramp up its purchases of crude oil from Russia and the United States. We must reverse the Biden Administration’s dangerous course of action,” stated Rep. Lucas.
Congressman Tom Hill also felt the same.
“For two years, the Biden Administration has assaulted American energy independence and undermined our national security by draining our emergency energy reserves to the lowest level in almost four decades,” said Cole, adding that it is time Congress blocked the selling of any amount of crude oil to Communist China.
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