The Biden Administration’s massive oil purchases to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which has been used to artificially depress gasoline prices, have flown under many people’s radar, but Republicans are beginning to take notice.
“That’s a little “It’s hypocritical,” Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan told Fox News Digital.
“They’re being two-faced on this,” said Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week that it would purchase 4.65 million barrels of oil for the SPR. Reaction was minimal, with many lawmakers unaware the purchase had occurred. The President did not publicly announce the SPR refill or publicize the purchase.
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Democrats have been criticized for their different reactions to Biden’s purchase of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) than they were to President Trump’s proposed purchases. (Getty Images)
When the former Trump administration tried to include a replenishment of the SPR in the COVID-19 stimulus package in 2020, Senate Democratic leaders blasted it as a “bailout” for Big Oil. At the time, oil prices were relatively low and could have been purchased for around $30 a barrel.
Democrats succeeded in removing the SPR replenishment from the final version of the stimulus package.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has purchased 43.25 million barrels of crude oil at an average price of $77 a barrel, about $20 lower than the 2022 average of $95 but still significantly higher than 2020.
When asked about the starkly different responses to similar actions by the Trump and Biden administrations, Senate Democrats were reluctant to say much about it.
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The SPR has been depleted by almost half. (Reuters/Angus Mordaunt)
“They made money, yes. So they sell high and buy low,” said Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts who is a vocal advocate of the Green New Deal and divestment from fossil fuels. “That’s how you manage the Strategic Pool, so that you have it available the next time you need it.”
When the Trump administration’s proposed purchases were removed from the COVID-19 stimulus package in 2020, then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Reportedly Remove the “$3 billion bailout for major oil companies” from the framework.
Schumer’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether Biden’s purchase also constitutes a bailout for Big Oil companies.
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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not criticize Biden’s oil purchases, as he did when similar requests were made under the Trump administration. (Getty Images)
“Let’s be honest, we should never have sold our oil reserves,” Ernst told Fox News Digital, “but certainly the situation is pretty bad. So if you say that under one administration, you need to say that under another administration.”
The “biggest problem,” Sullivan said, is that “more than any other administration, people in this administration are using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is supposed to be used in emergencies, as a political tool when they should be using a much more important reserve called Alaska.”
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Sen. Joe Manchin (I-Va.) is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
“I think it’s hypocritical on both sides,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (R-Iowa) told Fox News Digital.
“We need oil. We need reserves. We really need them. And, as the saying goes, you can’t take from Peter and pay Paul,” he explained. “And we have to be very careful about how we do this. And if you’re looking to basically change the market, either by putting more oil on the market or making it seem like you’re putting reserves back when you’re not, or whatever, it just doesn’t make sense.”
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The SPR currently holds 375.1 million barrels, a long way from its authorized storage capacity of 727 million barrels. In December 2009, the SPR held a record high of 726.6 million barrels.
President Biden has sold nearly half of the stockpile since taking office, leaving SPR reserves at their lowest since the 1980s.
