A maze of crude oil pipe and equipment is seen with the American and Texas flags flying in the background at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas.
Richard Carson | Reuters
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Friday aimed at limiting the president’s ability to draw down the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve for any reason other than a “severe energy supply disruption.”
The law is meant to prevent a repeat of President Joe Biden’s numerous withdrawals from the SPR in 2022 that Republicans contend were intended to lower consumer gas prices ahead of the midterm elections
The bill passed on a near party-line vote, 221-205, after more than six hours of individual House votes on various proposed amendments.
Titled the Strategic Production Response Act, the legislation passed Friday would prohibit any new drawdowns on the SPR until federal agencies had developed a plan to lease federal lands for oil and gas production “by the same percentage as the…
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