In a vote on Wednesday afternoon, House Democrats shot down a GOP-led amendment that would ban the Biden administration and U.S. Department of Energy from selling oil kept in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to one of our nation's biggest foes, China.
219 House Democrats voted to block the bill from going forward as gas prices remain more than $2 more expensive per gallon than when President Biden took office, signaling again that Democrats are all-in on their radical "transition" aimed at ending fossil fuels no matter the cost to Americans.
Rep. David Valadao, a Republican from California, spoke on the House floor in support of the GOP amendment, explaining that "supporting this language is common sense, especially since we need to focus on increasing energy production and not supporting our adversaries while Americans are still suffering from outrageously high fuel prices here at home."
While gas prices have come down a few pennies from their all-time highs reached earlier this summer while the Biden administration waged war on American energy, the national average for a gallon of regular fuel is still some $1.30 higher than it was just one year ago. Meanwhile, eight states currently still have averages over $5 per gallon.
"These [strategic] reserves are meant to be used in emergencies only," Valadao continued on Wednesday. "They are not meant to be used when our leadership has failed us by unnecessarily restricting domestic energy production."
?? I just requested a vote on legislation that would stop the Biden administration from sending our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to China.
— Rep. David Valadao (@RepDavidValadao) July 20, 2022
Every single Democrat just voted to put China’s national security over our own. pic.twitter.com/FYVFRsZ2hB
"What is even more concerning is that under the Biden administration, our Strategic Petroleum Reserve supplies have been severely diminished," the GOP congressman said. "It does not make sense to me that we are using our already-depleted energy supplies to help China build up its own strategic reserves."
According to the Department of Energy's SPR inventory tracker, current supplies in the strategic reserve come out to 480.1 million barrels. Since February, Biden has withdrawn 113.7 million barrels. For perspective, following Hurricane Katrina, the SPR was only tapped for 20.8 million barrels.
Biden's energy crisis has now seen him remove more than five Hurricane Katrina-sized emergencies worth of strategic oil. What's more, despite Biden's historic drawdowns that began in February, gas prices for Americans still skyrocketed to all-time highs.
As Valadao further highlighted on the House floor, “it is irresponsible and dangerous for the United States to provide a foreign adversary with fuel that we need to keep here in the United States in case of an emergency," adding "it seems the Biden administration is helping to support China’s national security at the expense of our own."
Of course, the oil and gas crisis is just one facet of Biden's assault on American energy — and selling America's strategic stockpile for emergencies to foreign nations, including China, is another consequence. If not for the revocation of leases for U.S. drilling and cancellation of production infrastructure projects since day one of his administration, we could be getting oil out of the ground here at home and refining it into fuel in America. Energy prices for Americans would be lower, and the U.S. could be selling surplus product to allies in Europe to keep Putin from using Russia' gas monopoly to punish free countries and threaten to plunge their populations into darkness.
Instead, the Biden administration — aided by Democrats in Congress — continues to undermine our own energy security interests in their quixotic attempt to save the planet from "climate change."
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