Protecting America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve From China Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, what political nonsense this bill is. It allows an American oil company to buy oil from the SPR on Monday and sell it to China on Tuesday, which means it is fine for them to see SPR oil going to China as long as an American oil company makes a little money out of it.

And, of course, as the ranking member points out, it allows all the other oil in the country, 98 percent of our exports to China, to go to China unchecked.

If we were serious about lowering prices for the American consumer, we would look at what the Republicans did in 2015 when they ended our ban on exports and insisted that that be added to the spending bill that shut down the government.

I had a bill introduced last month to ban American exports of oil when oil is selling for over $70 a barrel. We need to ban the exports of natural gas when prices are too high for American consumers.

Finally, this bill tries to attack the Biden administration's use of the SPR to lower gas prices here, where it has been somewhat effective and has made money for the United States Treasury.

Let's legislate seriously to lower oil and natural gas prices for the American consumer, instead of simply insisting that if American SPR oil goes to China, an oil company has to be a middleman and make a little money off of it.

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