What to Know in Washington: China Ban Leads GOP Energy Policy
By Michaela Ross
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Republican legislation to ban sales from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China, scheduled for House floor consideration Thursday, sets up the new House majority’s opening salvo on energy policy.
The measure (H.R. 22) would prohibit the sale and export of crude oil from the reserve to any entity under the “ownership, control, or influence” of the Chinese Communist Party. It would also require as a condition of sale that no SPR products are exported to China. However, it will likely be symbolic and not become law, given opposition in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
“China is now building a larger strategic petroleum reserve than we have here in the United States,” bill sponsor House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) told reporters during an American Petroleum Institute event on Wednesday. “The infrastructure of the SPR needs to be addressed, and we need a plan to refill.”
The partisan legislation is the first energy bill the GOP-led chamber will consider on the floor in the 118th Congress. Similar legislation circulated in the last Congress but never advanced. Read more.
Happening on the Hill
CONGRESS’ AGENDA:
- The House meets at 9 a.m. to vote on a bill to bar the Energy Department from selling from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China.
- The Senate is not in session.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Michaela Ross in Washington at mross@bgov.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Katrice Eborn at keborn@bgov.com
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