‘Pretty Shameful’: Biden Admin Has Sold Nearly 6 Million Barrels Of Strategic Oil Reserves To China
The Biden administration sold nearly six million barrels of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) since July 2021 to a Chinese state-run energy firm, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Department of Energy data.
From July 2021 until the end of June 2022, Biden’s energy department auctioned off 5.9 million barrels of strategic reserve oil to Unipec, the trading division of the Chinese state-owned Sinopec, in an effort to increase the supply of oil globally and drive down fuel costs in the U.S. that were exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and Biden’s climate policies. SPR oil is sold to the highest bidder, and some of the businesses entitled to make bids are American subsidiaries of foreign corporations like Unipec.
The DOE sold four million barrels to Unipec in the fall of 2021, almost six months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, making over $252 million from the sale, according to the FY22 Emergency Drawdown No. 2 Successful Awards Report. Each barrel was sold on average for roughly $63, or over eight dollars less than the average price of oil per barrel that month.
“I think it takes a bad policy and makes it worse,” Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The idea of tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rather than maxing out on American drilling was foolish from the start, it’s like taking out a loan instead of going out and earning more money,” he continued.
In July 2022 the DOE sold 950,000 barrels to Unipece for roughly $113 million, according to the FY22 Emergency Drawdown No. 3A Successful Awards Report. While the Biden administration claimed the sales will help the U.S. fight “Putin’s price hike,” Unipec is still buying large quantities of Russian oil, according to Bloomberg.
“It’s helping out a bit, but it’s still a very bad policy,” Lieberman told the DCNF. “The fact that we’re using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rather than drilling offshore or getting more oil to the United States through the Keystone XL pipeline, the fact that we’re not doing these things is really pretty shameful.”
In April, the DOE also sold 950,000 barrels to Unipec, according to a DOE report.
“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve never really was a substitute for that and now to hear that this oil is going to China is problematic because it undercuts their rationale even more,” said Lieberman. “Biden’s policy just shows that he’s not putting American consumers and the American economy first or second or even third.”
The DOE, the White House and Sinopec did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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He is pretty shameful and I believe treasonous. He has plenty of company in the Demon rat party.
Not only should Biden be impeached, he should be hung along with Hunter and Jim!
I wonder if that moron is getting his 10% out of the sales? You can bet there is something going into his pocket. That fool won’t be around to spend it the way his health is failing. And his wife and son will live “high on the hog.” Hunter will spend his portion on drugs and probably die of an overdose.While Joe will spend eternity in the flames of the lake of fire!
Biden’s first action as President was to shut down the Keystone pipeline and then destroy our energy independence by systematically shutting down any new drilling and exploration for gas and oil. He said when he was running that he was going to “end fossil fuel in America”. What he has done to our government agencies is far worse.
Unless the predicted “Red Wave” is a Tsunami we may not be able to survive. We are way further down the “rabbit hole” than most Americans realize. Biden and the Democrats and weaponized all the three letter agencies; the IRS, the CIA, the FBI, the DOJ, the DOE, and even the DOD, against the political opposition. The mainstream media and all the social media are complicit. As in China and third world dictatorships, dissidents are threatened and jailed while supporters (like the “Red Guard”) are encouraged to riot and burn with impunity.
Not only do “red waves” need to happen but Republicans with some courage will need to “root out” and get rid of all the entrenched communists and socialists. I am not hopeful as I have seen very little courage displayed in the face of a totally illegal open border, the compromised election, real domestic terrorism in the form of Antifa and BLM (not “white supremacists” or parents), and the ongoing silence with dozens of American citizens unconstitutionally locked up in a D.C. gulag on trumped up trespassing for over a year and a half with no due process and no bail. I don’t know if there is a way back from the current levels of submission and subversion.