House Republicans with huge Democratic support passed a ban on U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to China, following a raucous debate over President Biden’s energy policies.
113 Democrats joined 218 Republicans to pass the petroleum reserve China ban. Just 97 Democrats voted no.
The naysayers led by New Jersey’s Frank Pallone blamed Republicans for soaring energy prices, now eased, plaguing everyone from commuters to farmers the last two years.
Pallone; “Prior to 2015 when the Republicans lifted the ban on crude oil, we had that ban in place for 40-years…40-years…and then, in 2015 they came in and they lifted the ban. So, they caused this problem. And during the Trump Administration, the amount of crude oil that was sold to China was unbelievable.”
Democrats argued the GOP bill failed to go after other adversaries like Iran and North Korea and would go nowhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But Republican Leader Steve Scalise blamed the president for waging war against American energy.
Scalise; “President Biden was ok with pipelines from Russia to Europe, but he said ‘no’ to a pipeline from Canada to America, so all of these actions had a cost.”
As Scalise slammed a stack full of Biden regulations on the table in front of him, he added “Department of Energy went after American energy, Department of Energy Regulatory Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission through ‘woke’ policies, going after American energy, the Department of Agriculture, yes, went after American energy in these rules and regs, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Department of State.”
Adding EPA and the Departments of Justice and Interior, arguing depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve forced the president to plead with adversaries, including Saudi Arabia, to pump more oil.
