Biden would veto House GOP bill restricting president's ability to draw from strategic petroleum reserve
The White House argues that drawdowns from the SPR were necessary to counteract a global supply crunch and bring gas prices down
White House criticizes House GOP plan to limit president’s ability to draw from strategic petroleum reserve
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that Biden would veto a bill by House Republicans that would prohibit releasing oil from the strategic petroleum reserve without hiking domestic production.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Monday that President Biden would veto a bill being pushed by House Republicans that would limit his ability to draw from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The bill, the Strategic Production Response Act, calls for increasing domestic oil and gas production on federal lands to offset any future drawdowns from the reserve, which reached its lowest levels since 1983 last month.
"If Congress were to pass H.R. 21, the president would veto it," Granholm said at a White House press briefing on Monday. "He will not allow the American people to suffer because of the backwards agenda that House Republicans are advancing."
Biden first ordered the Department of Energy to tap into the SPR in November 2021, saying it was a "major effort to moderate the price of oil" and lower prices at the average "corner gas station." After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Biden announced a 30-million-barrel release and another 180-million-barrel release in March 2022.
FILE - A contractor works on a crude oil pipeline infrastructure at the U.S. Department of Energy's Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
While Biden has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin and energy companies for spikes in gas prices over the last year, Republicans have keyed in on the administration's domestic energy policies.
The Department of Energy released a report earlier this month that found the Keystone XL project, which Biden canceled in January 2021 upon taking office, would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion and created 16,149 to 59,000 jobs.
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Sen. Steve Daines. R-Mont., called the cancelation of the pipeline "the first step in the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas production in the United States."
House Republicans are expected to vote on the Strategic Production Response Act this week, but the bill faces an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 02: U.S. President Biden returns to the White House on January 02, 2023, in Washington, DC. President Biden is returning from his holiday vacation in St. Croix. ((Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
It comes after the House passed a bill on Jan. 12 that would ban the Department of Energy from selling oil from the SPR to China.
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The White House has touted the drawdowns from the SPR as necessary to counteract a global supply crunch over the past year.
"[The Strategic Production Response Act] would not offer any tangible benefits to the American people. Instead, it would interfere with our ability to be responsive, to release oil during an international emergency, helping Putin's war aims," Grahnholm said Monday.
Fox Business' Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.