Exclusive: Weber -- The Reckless Depletion of Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve

On President Joe Biden’s first day in office, he fired the first shot in his war against fossil fuel production in the United States by signing an executive order to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. We are over 500 days into his term, and it has been an all-out assault against American energy.

But one of the most alarming offensives is Biden’s abuse of the U.S.’ invaluable Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). This misguided policy encapsulates President Biden’s recklessness with America’s resources.

The SPR is at its lowest point since 1986 due to President Biden’s profligacy.

Around 60 percent of the crude oil stored in the SPR resides at two sites in Texas’ 14th Congressional District: Bryan Mound in Freeport and Big Hill near Winnie, making this issue extremely close to home. The SPR is an emergency supply of crude oil that has rarely been tapped since its inception, only during times of great need, such as in the aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Its capacity is 714 million barrels of oil, and at the beginning of Biden’s tenure as president, the SPR held 638 million barrels (almost 90 percent full).

By the time Russia invaded Ukraine, a little over a year into Biden’s presidency, that stockpile had dwindled to 580 million barrels (just over 81 percent) and further, to just under 565 million barrels on April 1, 2022.

Notwithstanding this alarming depletion of treasured emergency fuel, on March 31, Biden promised to withdraw 180 million barrels—1 million barrels every day—over six months, purportedly to combat the highway robbery Americans face daily at the gas pump.

If that withdrawal rate remains uninterrupted for all 180 days, the SPR will be left with a mere 384 million barrels, dropping almost 40 percent since the president took office.

The SPR was authorized in 1975 by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which empowers the president to draw from its reserves. However, the ability to direct the Secretary of Energy to begin drawing oil is contingent on a “severe energy supply interruption.” It isn’t easy to fathom that this condition has been met since the country with the largest untapped oil reserves is, you guessed it, the USA!

In the simplest of terms, President Biden would be well served to remember the critical aspects of the SPR.

Strategic: Both 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina are examples of disastrous circumstances beyond our control; thus, our response—including a temporary resort to the SPR—was strategic in nature. On the other hand, the current crisis is a matter entirely of Biden’s own making (despite his finger-pointing at Vladimir Putin and others). The president’s wild Hail Mary pass is neither warranted by the facts nor effective in its stated goals.

Petroleum. The Far Left’s fixation against fossil fuels denies the reality that, even under ideal circumstances, a transition to renewables is not ready for prime time, with the significant infrastructure needed to accommodate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and the like. Even then, fossil fuels will remain a necessary component of any future energy basket—and we are blessed to have a lot of it in TX-14.

Reserve. Finally, we should tap into this stockpile in the spirit of last resort. This resource, equivalent to a “rainy day fund,” should be used only in case of an economic downpour. While current circumstances are daunting, they are not entirely unmanageable—yet. In the meantime, the SPR should never be squandered in a slapdash manner to cover up bad policies. And certainly not when it will cost much more to replenish those reserves—again, because this president’s outlandish restrictions make domestic oil production much more expensive.

It need not be that hard to implement sound policy. Only if your political fortunes are inextricably tied to the petulant demands of anti-energy know-nothings does it take courage to do the right thing.

Otherwise, it just takes a modicum of common sense.

Randy Weber (R-TX) has represented Texas’s 14th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2013