Listen Live

WASHINGTON — The Republican majority in the U.S. House is already flexing its authority with the passage of a bill to block the Biden Administration from selling any more oil to China.

Called the “Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act”, the bill would block any future sales of oil from the country’s strategic petroleum reserve to China. Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN-8th) spoke on the House floor in favor of the bill.

“Under the Biden administration, we have seen a continuous assault on American energy that has killed jobs, increased our dependency on foreign energy sources, and caused energy costs to soar,” said Bucshon.

He added that President Biden sold millions of barrels of oil to China during his release of oil from the strategic reserve in an effort to curtail rising gas prices late last year. Other Republicans have criticized Biden for releasing the oil, saying it was for political purposes and thus is a threat to national security.

Biden released 180 million barrels of oil from reserves around the US last year. That release lowered the U.S. oil reserves to the lowest level they’ve been since the 1980s.

Under the bill, it would also prohibit any “non-emergency drawdowns” of reserves without an immediate plan to replenish them.

This is as far as the bill is expected to go with the Democrat-controlled Senate not expected to bring the bill up for consideration.