The US House on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution making it clear the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be protected from China and oil from the Reserve should not be sold to the Communist country.
All five Oklahomans in the House supported H.R. 22- the Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act.
The final vote was 331-97 and prompted Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas to say the Act would be a step in the right direction towards unleashing American energy production. The Act was proposed after President Biden used oil from the reserve to lower gasoline prices but some of the oil ended up in the hands of China.
““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.
“Yet, more recently, President Biden has irresponsibly utilized the SPR to cover up his failed policies, rapidly draining America’s petroleum reserves to its lowest levels since 1983,” said Congressman Lucas.
Rep. Tom Cole supported the act.
“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.
“ The Biden Administration can ease our nation’s energy crisis by unleashing American energy production instead of tapping into the SPR. I was proud to support this legislation that puts principle above Democrats’ disastrous green energy agenda and counters the CCP’s economic dominance.”