House Of Representatives Passes SPR "Protest" Bill

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill restricting the Department of Energy from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve without a corresponding plan to increase oil production on federal land.

• The bill will head to the Democrat controlled Senate where it will almost certainly fail. If it passes the Senate it be subject to a veto from President Biden.
• The bill is the second piece of "protest" legislation brought to the House floor by the Republican majority designed to highlight what the GOP argues are failings in Biden administration energy policy which has left the US vulnerable to geopolitical volatility and international oil producers.
• Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND): “The SPR was created during a time of energy scarcity. You don’t need an emergency reserve to bail you out of high energy prices. You just need to use the Bakken or Permian Basin.”
• Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said: "President Biden has turned a longtime bipartisan strategic asset, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, into a political tool to cover up the consequences of his expensive rush-to-green agenda."