Despite facing an uncertain future in the Senate, a bill to prohibit the release of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve for export to China was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday.
The House, which the Republicans narrowly gained control of this month, passed the bill 331-97. Democrats only cast the “no” votes.
When President Joe Biden, a Democrat, announced the sale of 180 million barrels from the SPR to curb rising oil prices brought on by Russia’s conflict on Ukraine, the subject of American oil exports to China turned into a rallying cry for Republicans last year.
Nearly 67 million barrels of oil were exported by American oil corporations to China through October of last year.
However, during Republican Donald Trump’s whole administration in 2020, the US sold 176 million barrels to China.
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington state, said, “We shouldn’t gift the Chinese Communist Party the keys to our energy destiny.” The Biden administration, according to her, is “squandering our strategic reserves.”
According to Benjamin Salisbury, an analyst at Height Capital Markets, the legislation is only one of several “message bills” that Republicans hope to pass in the first few months of the year to emphasize the divisions between the two political parties. But, he added, “getting legislation into law will require harsh concessions” with the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Biden administration has no concrete intentions to carry out additional sales from the SPR, but this year may see some minor sales mandated under legislation passed by Congress in previous years.
A select committee on China was established this week by a resounding majority of the U.S. House of Representatives in order to oppose Beijing’s expanding global influence. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy claimed it will address issues like bringing supply chains back to the nation and bringing employment from China to the United States.
