Biden allowing emergency oil reserves to go to China: Republican lawmakers claim

Several top Republicans have severely slammed US President Joe Biden following reports of emergency US oil being sent to China and other nations, thereby compromising the country's energy security and national security.

The criticism came from the GOP on Thursday after reports emerged that more than five million barrels of oil released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have been diverted to European and Asian nations. According to US media reports, the Biden administration plans to release a total of about 260 million barrels of oil stored in the SPR to combat record fuel prices hitting American consumers.

"The American people deserve answers as to why our emergency energy reserves are being sent to foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party, compromising our energy security and national security," House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers told Fox News Digital in a statement.

"President Biden needs to remember that our strategic energy reserves are for emergencies, not to cover-up bad policies. America needs to flip the switch and increase our capacity to produce and refine oil here at home," she continued. "Now is not the time to use our strategic stockpile."

House Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Energy Subcommittee Republican Leader Fred Upton sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm directing her to provide information on the Department of Energy's management of the SPR and the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve (NEHHOR), and how China is taking advantage of the Biden administration's use of our strategic fuel reserves.

They claimed the reserves, to be used in emergencies such as wars or natural disasters, have been depleted by the Biden administration in a failed attempt to distract from the dangerous course its anti-American energy policies have put the United States on with high gas prices and less oil and gas production. "The administration has already tapped the SPR and may tap the NEHHOR for diesel fuel."

"The members raise the national security implications of using up our strategic fuel reserves recklessly while other countries stock up, especially China. China has been purchasing crude oil, including reportedly from the U.S.'s SPR, in order to build up its own stockpiles," they added.

According to Republicans, the Biden administration has worked to keep American oil and gas in the ground, drained the country's fuel reserves, and allowed China to build its own fuel reserves at the expense of American taxpayers.

In the letter to Secretary Granholm, they further said, "The Biden administration is depleting the nation's petroleum reserves, while allowing OPEC, Russia, and China to gain geopolitical leverage over the United States."

( With inputs from ANI )