Newly-elected U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is getting to work quickly, after being elected in November 2022, voting in favor of a bill to stop the Biden administration from selling domestic oil to China.
“Today I voted yes to House Resolution 22 to block the Biden administration from selling American Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to our adversaries,” Mills said on Twitter on Jan. 12. “We need to unleash American energy, stop foreign reliance, and get to energy dominance. AMERICA FIRST.”
The bill is called Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act, or HR 22, and was introduced by U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). It prohibits selling and exporting crude oil from the petroleum reserve to China.
The bill specifically prohibits the Department of Energy (DOE) from selling petroleum products from the SPR to anyone under the ownership, control or influence of the Chinese Communist Party. It also requires a condition of sales of any oil from the SPR to not be exported to China.
According to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2020, America exported 176,009 barrels of crude oil to China. Then in 2021, it exported 93,365 barrels, and between May-October 2022, America exported 40,601 barrels of crude oil to China.
Charlie Bilello, a chief marketing strategist for the company, Critical Planning, said in a tweet that the U.S. Petroleum Reserve has moved downward for the 70th straight week and is currently the lowest it has been since 1983. This is a 37% decline, and the largest on record.
