Strategic Production Response Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Chair, releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a critical and commonsense strategy that is helping to lower the price of energy for working Rhode Islanders and for all Americans.

In my State, and across the country, people have been struggling to keep up with energy costs. We all hear it from our constituents. They are struggling with the cost of gas, with the cost of oil, with the cost of heating their homes.

Many of us campaigned on doing something about it, which is why it boggles the mind that the Republican leadership has not yet brought us a single bill to tackle lowering energy costs for consumers and, in fact, is, instead, introducing a bill to restrict one of the tools the administration has to lower energy costs.

Who stands to benefit from this attempt to restrict the ability of the President to utilize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with unnecessary red tape? Certainly not consumers; certainly not people in my State who are struggling with the cost of energy.

No. This bill puts oil company profits ahead of working people struggling to keep up with inflation.

My amendment is a simple one. It states that this bill, if it should pass, cannot restrict the ability of the President to utilize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices for consumers.

I have heard the other side say that there is already an exception in the bill to allow for emergencies, but that is not entirely accurate. As it is written, the exception is narrow. It only applies to supply disruptions. There are many other things that can cause prices to spike, and there is no protection in those situations.

This amendment is drawing a line in the sand. On one side stand the oil companies and their profits. On the other side are the working people of our districts, who are struggling to keep up with the cost of energy.

This is a moment for every Member of this Chamber to show which side we are on.

I ask my colleagues to support this amendment to show that we stand with working people who are struggling with energy costs as opposed to just the Big Oil companies and their precious profits.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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Mr. MAGAZINER. 58.

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Chair, it is winter, and in Rhode Island, in my State, one-third of our households rely on oil to heat their homes. In response to increased energy prices, the Biden administration has released oil from the strategic reserve to provide much-needed relief to families who are worried about heating their homes this winter.

My colleague across the aisle is correct. Extreme weather events like blizzards and cold snaps are emergencies that are legitimate uses of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but now, in one of the first acts of this Congress, the leadership on the other side has introduced a bill that will restrict the ability of the administration to lower energy costs for working Americans by introducing unnecessary red tape into the process.

People are struggling to heat their homes this winter in my State and in States all across the country, so I am offering an amendment that will prevent this legislation from taking effect if the Secretary of Energy determines that it will negatively impact households that use oil to heat their homes.

I understand that this will not be popular with the oil companies that are looking to increase their enormous profits by expanding their drilling on public lands as quickly as possible, but we have a responsibility to the people back home to make sure that we do not do something that will impact the administration's ability to help people heat their homes this winter.

Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues, once again, to side with the working people of this country who are struggling to heat their homes by supporting this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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