House Republicans are opening an investigation into the Biden administration‘s drawdowns of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to quell high fuel prices, which they said leaves the country vulnerable to more supply shocks.
Members of the House Oversight Committee, in a letter sent to United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday, requested communications between Department of Energy officials about the SPR reaching back to Inauguration Day. The request covers any documents referring or relating to using the SPR to lower prices between DOE officials, the White House, and third-party groups.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve “was created as an emergency buffer to mitigate domestic fallout from global market shocks,” the lawmakers said. “But after President Joe Biden emptied more of our vital stockpiles than all previous presidents combined, the SPR now sits at its lowest levels since establishment.”
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“Dipping further into the SPR to cover additional foreign fuel bans or price fluctuations is a short-sighted fix that would inadvertently exacerbate U.S. vulnerability,” they also said.
In late March, Biden ordered an emergency drawdown amounting to roughly 180 million barrels of oil from the reserve after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil markets into a tailspin.
That drawdown, which was originally set to take place over a six-month period, was ordered on top of an internationally coordinated drawdown ordered shortly after the war began, as well as a separate, non-emergency release of SPR oil announced in November 2021.
In November 2021, when Biden announced his first release of SPR oil to tame high gasoline prices, SPR stocks stood at around 600 million barrels. They now stand at around 400 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Republicans have criticized Biden’s use of the SPR as a politicization of the reserve designed to help Democrats during an election year, while many Democrats have championed Biden’s actions and floated changes to law that would give the president more authority to use the reserve to tame high prices.
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Oversight Republicans, in their letter to Granholm, also requested communications regarding the potential imposition of an export ban on petroleum products, something the Biden administration has declined to rule out as it weighs further measures to tame high retail fuel prices.
“We are concerned that the president may soon impose an oil and gas export ban that will result in even higher gas prices, supply chain issues, global market upheaval, and reduced energy security for the U.S. and our allies,” the lawmakers said.
