Biden faces backlash from Republicans over reports US sending its emergency oil to China

US President Joe Biden drew backlash from several top Republicans after reports emerged stating that the US is sending its emergency oil to China along with other nations. Thereby, Republicans were furious about the Biden administration compromising the country’s energy security and national security.

GOP criticism on Thursday budded from the reports that claimed that over five billion barrels of oil released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) were diverted to European and Asian countries including China. American media has also reported that the Biden administration is mulling to further deliver at least 260 million barrels of oil stored for emergency purposes to tackle the fuel prices that have rocked the United States presently.

US House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers told Fox News Digital in a statement, “The American people deserve answers as to why our emergency energy reserves are being sent to foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party, compromising our energy security and national security”.

"President Biden needs to remember that our strategic energy reserves are for emergencies, not to cover-up bad policies. America needs to flip the switch and increase our capacity to produce and refine oil here at home," she continued. "Now is not the time to use our strategic stockpile."

Moreover, McMorris Rodgers and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who are the top Republicans on the panel’s energy subcommittee, sent a letter to US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in early June, demanding information about how the Biden administration was handling SPR policy with regards to China. Both GOP leaders took note of such reports that China had bought some oil from US emergency reserves to bolster its own stockpile. 

McMorris Rodgers told Fox News that the committee is yet to receive a response from Granholm on the administration’s “mismanagement” of US oil stockpiles. She questioned, “What do they have to hide?” Meanwhile, Upton also took to Twitter and said, “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is meant for national emergencies – not policy blunders…The administration still has not answered congressional questions on its mismanagement of the SPR."

SPR level falls to about 492 million barrels of oil

Meanwhile, as the US is scrambling efforts to tackle the hike in fuel prices which Biden has already termed as “Putin’s price hike” and blamed the war in Ukraine, the level of SPR has fallen to about 492 million barrels of oil. The media outlet cited Energy Information Administration to state that present SPR levels are the lowest since December 1985. It is to note that the current level is also 20% lower than the recorded levels before Biden’s first release in late November. SPR was established under the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act to help America mitigate the impacts of future "severe energy supply interruptions."

Image: AP