A significant oil purchase by the Biden administration for the purpose of replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) — which was tapped to artificially lower gas prices — has managed to fly under the radar for many, and Republicans are beginning to take notice.
“It is a little hypocritical,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said, “They’re being kind of two-faced about this.”
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced the purchase of 4.65 million barrels of oil for the SPR last week. The response was minimal, with many lawmakers unaware the purchase had even occurred. The president did not officially announce the SPR replenishment or tout the purchase.
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In 2020, when former President Trump’s administration sought to include replenishment for the SPR in a COVID-19 economic stimulus package, Senate Democratic leadership slammed him for what they referred to as a “bailout” for Big Oil. During that time, oil prices had fallen relatively low, and a purchase could have been made at roughly $30 per barrel.
Democrats were successful in removing the SPR replenishment from the ultimate version of the stimulus package.
The Biden administration, on the other hand, purchased 43.25 million barrels of oil at an average price of $77 per barrel, which is roughly $20 less than what it sold for in 2022 for an average $95, but still significantly higher than it was in 2020.
When questioned about the vastly different responses to the Trump and Biden administration’s similar actions, Senate Democrats were less than willing to address it.
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“They made money. Yeah. So, sell high, buy low,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., an outspoken proponent of the Green New Deal and moving away from fossil fuels. “That’s the way to manage your strategic joint reserve. And then you can deploy it the next time that you need it again.”
When the Trump administration’s proposed purchase was dropped from the COVID-19 stimulus in 2020, then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reportedly touted eliminating the “$3 billion bailout for Big Oil” from the framework.
Schumer’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether Biden’s purchase is also a bailout for Big Oil.
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“Let’s be honest, they shouldn’t have been selling off the petroleum reserves anyway,” Ernst told Fox News Digital. “But yeah, it’s pretty bad. So if you’re going to say it under one administration, you need to say it under the other.”
According to Sullivan, “the biggest issue” is that “these guys, more than any other administration, have been using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — which is supposed to be used for emergencies — as a political device, and they should be using a much more important strategic petroleum reserve called Alaska.”
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Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., told Fox News Digital, “I think both sides are hypocritical.”
“We have to have petroleum. We have to have a reserve. We really do. And you can’t rob Peter to pay Paul, as they say,” he explained. “And you’ve got to be very careful how you do this. And if you think you’re going to basically change the market, basically just put more oil on the market or make them think that you’re putting the reserves back when you’re really not, and whatever, it makes no sense at all.”
The SPR currently holds 375.1 million barrels, a significant departure from the authorized storage capacity of 727 million barrels. In December 2009, the SPR held a record 726.6 million barrels.
Since taking office, President Biden has sold nearly half of what was in the reserve, marking the lowest the SPR has been filled since the 1980s.
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