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 Cardiff Star 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 Cardiff Star.
More InformationLONDON, UK - Shahzad Akbar, a former accountability advisor to former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, has claimed that an ...
LONDON, UK: In the latest in a series of related issues facing British banks, on November 24, thousands of HSBC ...
Alejandro Cao de Benos has been accused of helping North Korea evade sanctions by using cryptocurrencyA Spanish man accused of ...
(Photo credit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports) Manchester United will try to continue their strong Premier League form -- and put ...
Spanish police said Friday that they had arrested a Spaniard wanted by U.S. officials for working with an American to ...
Rishi Sunak, David Cameron and King Charles are just three of the more than 70,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: After a House Ethics Committee report found substantial evidence that he broke the law, New York Republican representative ...
In a report by The New York Times, it has been revealed that Israeli officials had obtained a detailed battle ...
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar: Kyar Win, spokesperson for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which launched a surprise offensive last month against ...
While Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been frantically shuttling around the Middle East trying to stop the Israeli coflict ...
LESBOS, Greece: Greek authorities said a cargo ship sank off the island of Lesbos over the weekend during a storm, ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio: To stop the spread of bird flu, more than 1.3 million chickens will be killed on Ohio's Union ...