January 30, 2023 |
U.S. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming on Friday praised the Republican House of Representatives for passing a bill aimed at restricting presidential releases of oil from the country’s emergency energy supply.
The Strategic Production Response Act is a direct response to President Joe Biden draining nation’s emergency stockpiles of oil to the lowest level in 40 years. The bill, which passed on a 221-205 vote would limit releases to national emergencies related to supply disruptions. It also requires the federal government to develop open up more federal lands to oil and gas production.
The legislation is unlikely to make its way past the Democratic-led Senate, and the Biden administration has also said that the president would veto the bill.
Sen. Barrasso said that the president’s raiding of the SPR to salvage his popularity ratings in the face of high gas prices “means our vulnerability to an energy emergency is at a 40-year high.”
Barrasso is the ranking member of the senate energy committee. Last week, he introduced a similar piece of legislation in the senate that links increases in domestic production with any more drawdowns from the SPR.
Barrasso also has sponsored legislation prohibiting the White House from selling any reserves from the SPR to China or other hostile countries, including Iran.
Since November 2021, President Joe Biden has ordered the sale of more than 250 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, sending levels to their lowest point in more than 40 years.
