Bice Introduces Bill to Prevent SPR Sales to China

Washington, D.C - Today, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) introduced the Save America’s Valuable Energy Act. This legislation ensures that crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve does not flow to companies that are headquartered in countries listed under the State Department’s Defense Trade Control Country Policies List, which includes: Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or Venezuela. In addition, this legislation prevents the sale of crude from the SPR to entities headquartered in Russia. This comes after the U.S. Department of Energy in April of 2022 approved sales to Unipec America, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China International United Petroleum and Chemical Co, better known as UNIPEC. UNIPEC is headquartered in Beijing, China.

Rep. Bice introduced the following statement:

“Instead of fixing the problem and restoring American energy production, Biden has chosen to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the fifth time. The SPR is supposed to be used for emergencies and major weather events, not as a bandage to stop the bleeding from his self-inflicted crisis. To make matters worse, in April, Biden sent 950,000 barrels from the SPR to China. My legislation closes this loophole and ensures that in the future, we do not send a single barrel of American crude oil to our adversaries.”

Read the legislation here.