On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that restricts the energy secretary’s ability to access the strategic oil reserve without creating plans to expand the number of public lands open to oil and gas drilling.
The bill was supported by representatives 221 to 205, with just one Democrat voting in favour. The White House announced this week that should the bill pass Congress, President Joe Biden would veto it. As opposed to the House, which is controlled by Democrats, the Senate is expected to be a tough place for the bill to pass.
The Strategic Production Response Act, or H.R.21, mandates that before drawing from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the U.S. energy secretary create a strategy to increase oil and gas leasing on federal lands, including submerged ones on the Outer Continental Shelf. It wouldn’t prevent the president from using the SPR in an emergency situation, such as when a hurricane stops the production of crude.
Republicans have pushed a number of political messaging bills that appeal to conservative voters since taking control of the House this month.
Republicans who supported the legislation claimed the Biden administration acted recklessly when it released the largest amount of oil ever—180 million barrels—from the reserve last year, or one million barrels every day for six months. The SPR level has dropped to its lowest level since 1983 as a result of this drawdown and others that Biden approved.
Republican lawmaker and chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Cathy McMorris Rodgers argued that the SPR should only be used to address genuine emergencies.
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