Protecting America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve From China Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Pallone for yielding the time.

America should not be exporting our crude oil exports to an adversary, and that was our national policy for 40 years until a Republican-controlled Congress authorized sending American crude oil abroad in 2015.

China exploited that ill-advised policy change, and exports of American crude oil to China increased nearly a hundredfold during the Trump administration to about 391 million barrels.

Last year, in response to soaring gasoline prices caused by Putin's unprovoked attack on Ukraine, President Biden successfully used the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower prices at the pump and provide relief to American families. This was a commonsense strategy that worked.

Gasoline prices have fallen an average of $1.90 per gallon nationwide since their peak last June. However, we cannot keep relying on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep oil prices in check.

That is why Democrats have focused on lowering costs and avoiding price spikes through the Inflation Reduction Act because cleaner, cheaper energy is our future. It will lower costs, create good-paying jobs, and help us build safer, more resilient, and healthier communities.

Plus, this bill is way too narrowly tailored. What we should be debating today is the farsighted bill offered by my colleagues, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan and Congressman Don Bacon, a bipartisan bill that would completely ban all crude oil exports to China. That is a much stronger bill. In addition to China, it would ban crude oil exports to all of our adversaries, including Iran and North Korea.

In the end, America's future is in clean energy. That is how we are going to lower the cost of energy for American families, provide good- paying jobs, and make sure that we provide a livable planet to our kids and future generations.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman and I congratulate Mrs. McMorris Rodgers for taking the gavel of the Energy and Commerce Committee and I look forward to working with her in the 118th Congress.

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