Global Courant 2023-05-09 03:10:27
Republican leaders on Senate and House committees overseeing federal energy policy are calling for a watchdog investigation into the depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by the Biden administration.
The legislators – House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member John Barrasso, R-Wyo. – asked in a letter to the Government Accountability Office on Monday to investigate the Ministry of Energy (DOE). They argue that the agency’s heavy reliance on the SPR has undermined US energy security.
“DOE’s mismanagement of the SPR has undermined America’s energy security, making the country more vulnerable to energy supply disruptions and increasing OPEC’s and Russia’s ability to use energy as a geopolitical weapon,” McMorris Rodgers and Barrasso wrote in the letter. to Gene Dodaro. , the controller of the GAO.
“DOE has failed to establish long-term plans for the reserve’s optimal size, configuration, maintenance and operational capabilities,” they added. “We are concerned that the rapid depletion of the SPR may have caused structural damage to the SPR’s pipelines and caverns, jeopardizing its ability to fulfill its energy security mission in the event of a true energy supply disruption.”
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President Biden has ordered three massive emergency reserve releases, pushing the level from 638 million barrels to 362 million barrels, a drop of 43%. (Alex Wong / Getty Images / File)
They noted that the SPR, which consists of four storage facilities in Texas and Louisiana, consists of a system of wells, pipelines and pumps that use water and brine to control oil flows. Lawmakers expressed concern that the repeated withdrawal of oil supplies from the system could eventually compromise the physical integrity of the SPR.
Overall, in three separate releases, President Joe Biden has ordered the DOE to release a total of about 260 million barrels of oil stored in the SPR since taking office to combat record fuel prices hitting American consumers.
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The SPR, which has a capacity of about 714 million barrels, has fallen from about 638 million barrels to 362 million barrels, the lowest level since October 1983, since Biden took office.
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/File)
“DOE also recently created new rules, without Congressional authorization, for ‘fixed price’ purchases of crude oil, rather than conventional purchase contracts,” McMorris Rodgers and Barrasso continued in the letter Monday.
“DOE’s failure to contract to buy oil under the new fixed-price bidding system raises serious questions about DOE’s supply strategy and the SPR’s ability to protect U.S. consumers and the economy in times of need” , the letter said. mention.
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The White House unveiled a plan last year to replenish SPR supplies by buying back oil at $67 to $72 a barrel, a plan it says would amount to buying oil at a discount. However, DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested in March that it could take years to restore the emergency reserve to previous levels.
The Government Accountability Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
