U.S. House passes bill banning China’s export of reserve oil

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit oil from U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves being exported to China. However, it faces uncertain future in the Senate.

The House passed the bill 331 to 97. Republicans held narrow control of this month’s legislative session. All “no” votes were cast by Democrats.

The U.S.’s oil exports to China issue became a rallying cry of Republicans when President Joe Biden, a Democrat announced last year that 180 million barrels were being sold by the SPR to control rising oil prices as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

In October 2013, nearly 67 Million barrels of oil were exported by U.S. oil firms to China.

However, in 2020, under Republican Donald Trump, the United States exported 176,000,000 barrels to China.

“We shouldn’t hand the keys to our energy future over to the Chinese Communist Party,” said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington state. She stated that the Biden administration “wasting our strategic reserves.”

Benjamin Salisbury from Height Capital Markets said that the legislation is just one of several “messaging bill” Republicans seek to pass in the early part of the year to highlight differences between the political parties. He said that “To get legislation into law, it will require difficult compromises” with Senate, which is controlled largely by Democrats.

Although the Biden administration does not have any plans to sell more from the SPR this year, it could make smaller sales as a result of legislation passed in previous years.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to create a special committee on China in an effort to curb Beijing’s growing international influence. Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker said that it would address issues such bringing back jobs to China from the United States, protecting intellectual property, and bringing back supply chains.

(Reporting and editing by Timothy Gardner, Pritha Sharmakar

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