Robert Besser
04 Feb 2023, 02:07 GMT+10
WASHINGTON D.C.: The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that limits the ability of US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve without drafting plans to increase the area of public land available for oil and gas exploration.
Representatives backed the bill 221 to 205, with only one Democrat supporting it.
However, the bill, known as the Strategic Production Response Act, is expected to face an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and the White House said that President Joe Biden would veto it, should it pass Congress.
H.R.21 requires Granholm to draft a plan to increase oil and gas leasing on federal lands before tapping the SPRl, though but it cannot stop the president from tapping the reserve during emergencies.
According to the bill's Republican backers, the Biden administration sold 180 million barrels from the reserve last year, or 1 million barrels a day for six months, which left the SPR at its lowest level since 1983.
Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the reserves should be used only to address true emergencies.
"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," she said.
The Biden administration stressed that it sold the oil to counter the rise in gasoline prices to $5.00 a gallon, which helped cause the highest US inflation levels in decades.
In 2022, oil prices rose after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This week, Granholm told reporters that Biden "will not allow the American people to suffer because of the backwards agenda that House Republicans are advancing."
Get a daily dose of Baton Rouge Post news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Baton Rouge Post.
More InformationNEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks and the dollar made solid gains on Wednesday as banking sector fears continued ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: In a legal filing, Twitter announced that parts of its source code - the fundamental ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Bloomberg News has reported that New Jersey-based Valley National Bancorp is bidding to purchase Silicon ...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks lipped on Tuesday as bond yields rose in the aftermath of the easing ...
DUBLIN, Ireland: US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has said it will build a $1bn medicine manufacturing site in Limerick. Lily ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The US National Transportation Safety Board has said that after an automated cockpit warning that switched off a ...
MOSCOW, Russia: A new campaign has begun across Russia to attract badly needed recruits to replenish its troop numbers for ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: In a legal filing, Twitter announced that parts of its source code - the fundamental ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: The US National Transportation Safety Board has said that after an automated cockpit warning that switched off a ...
BEIJING, California: As the world's second-largest economy is still struggling to fully recover from the long-term effects of COVID-19, most ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: To address summer airport congestion and low air traffic controller staffing levels, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: After several high-profile near collision incidents, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a safety alerts to ...