U.S. Reps. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Mike Bost (R-IL), Tom Cole (R-OK), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) applauded passage on Jan. 27 by the U.S. House of Representatives of legislation to ensure the emergency-only use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
“I am honored to join my Republican colleagues in passing this important bill to strengthen American energy security and leadership,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers, who on Jan. 9 sponsored the Strategic Production Response Act, H.R. 21, with 22 original GOP cosponsors, including Rep. Armstrong.
The Republican-led H.R. 21, would limit the drawdown of petroleum in the SPR until the U.S. Department of Energy develops a plan to increase the percentage of federal lands leased for oil and gas production, according to the text of the bill. Reps. Cole and Bost on Friday joined the House majority in voting 221-205 to approve H.R. 21, which now advances to the U.S. Senate for action.
“President Biden has turned a longtime bipartisan strategic asset, the [SPR], into a political tool to cover up the consequences of his expensive rush-to-green agenda,” the congresswoman said. “H.R. 21 provides a path towards making energy more affordable and reliable for Americans by preserving the SPR’s vital and central purpose — to provide the oil supplies Americans need during true emergencies, not drain them away for non-emergency, political purposes.”
Rep. Armstrong agreed, saying the Biden administration has used the SPR as a political ploy to try and hide the damage caused by its energy policies and that the reserve has been drained to a near 40-year low, leaving the United States vulnerable in the event of an emergency.
“The [SPR] will rein in the abuse of our reserves and set us on a path to empower energy producing states like North Dakota to provide reliable and needed energy,” said Rep. Armstrong.
If enacted, H.R. 21 would require that the Energy Department domestic energy production plan be only required for non-emergency drawdowns of the SPR, and that it should be used to increase domestic production to make up for the amount of oil drawn down in the non-emergency release, according to a bill summary provided by the lawmakers.
The bill would not affect existing statutory or regulatory restrictions that may prohibit drilling in federal waters, among other provisions, the summary says.
“In the past two years, President Biden has depleted our Strategic Petroleum Reserve by nearly 40 percent in an attempt to save face and artificially lower gas prices,” said Rep. Bost. “That’s more than every other U.S. president combined.”
Reps. Bost and Cole also said that energy security is national security, and the administration’s attempt to score political points has put the nation at risk.
“Draining our nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve increases our risk if an emergency or natural disaster were to occur, emboldens our adversaries, and is certainly not a long-term solution to the high energy prices Americans are currently paying,” Rep. Cole said, noting that the Biden administration’s war on American energy “is the root cause of our current energy crisis and until it reverses course and starts using the resources we have here at home, nothing will change.”
And if Biden, “or any other president, wants to exploit our energy reserves for non-emergency situations, they must have a plan to refill it,” added Rep. Bost.