(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., and Sen. Joe Machin, D-W.V., successfully proposed and passed a legislative amendment prohibiting President Joe Biden from selling off America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to nations such as China, North Korea, Iran and Russia, according to a recent press release from Cruz’s team.
The move was made as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. It received substantial bipartisan support, passing 85-12.
According to Cruz, the legislation made sense given recent information coming from China.
“We know China has been amassing the largest stockpile of crude in the world. Nevertheless, last year, the United States sold off part of our reserves to China,” he noted.
“I have been working with Senator Manchin to prohibit such inexplicably reckless moves in a bipartisan way. . . We should not be selling our emergency oil reserves to our adversaries.”
He specifically listed “China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea” as “our adversaries,” and noted that President Joe Biden has “unnecessarily and dangerously” undermined “our national security.”
Manchin chimed in as well, supporting the amendment on the grounds that, while America supplies oil to the world, China is looking after its own national interest.
“Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. ramped up production and exports to help meet global demand. It had been devastating to the world,” he said.
“China, on the other hand, stockpiled oil and held back refinery production. And while China was stockpiling, one of its state-owned companies purchased over 1.4 million barrels from the United States of America, the people of our great country, from our own stock of reserves. That’s what we’re trying to stop.”
Biden and his administration have spent years depleting America’s SPR, and it does not look to be coming back anytime soon, especially as climate change zeal grips the left.
According to U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, she does not expect the reserve to be refilled by 2024.
“The first term’s over in a year and a half,” Granholm said when asked about the SPR. “So, I’m not sure it’ll be fully replenished. But certainly, the plan is this term and the next term to be able to do that.”
