U.S. officials attempt to pass bill prohibiting selling reserve oil to China

On Thursday, a new bill to prohibit exporting oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Nevertheless, this fact provides no guarantee that the bill will be approved by the Senate.

The House of Representatives, which has been dominated by Republicans since this January, overwhelmingly passed the mentioned bill. It’s necessary to note that all the "no" votes were given by Democratic Party representatives, with the total number of votes against the project being 97 out of 428.

The issue of selling American oil from the reserves to China played a unifying role for Republicans in 2022. The matter became especially intense after an announcement made by Democrat President Joe Biden to release and sell 180 million barrels from the SPR to lower oil prices.

At the same time, it’s worth mentioning that under the administration of Republican President Donald Trump, the U.S. exported certain volumes of oil to China anyway. Thus, in 2020, the exports to this country reached the level of 176 million barrels.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, one of the Representatives from the Republican Party, commented on the bill’s passing. She said that the Biden administration is being careless about the U.S. strategic reserves, while the government shouldn’t pass the keys to the nation’s energy future to China.

Still, Republicans are likely to make some rough compromises with the Senate to get legislation into law, as the Senate is now under control of Democrats.