'It's strategic petroleum reserve, not the political petroleum reserve': Republicans tear into Biden's 'absurd' plan to take out 15 million oil barrels

Republican lawmakers have been criticizing President Joe Biden on Wednesday over his plan to release 15 million oil barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve.

The GOP also renewed its calls for Biden to tap further into sources of domestic energy production, as gas prices continue to fluctuate after reaching an all-time high average price per gallon in June.

'It's strategic petroleum reserve, not the political petroleum reserve,' House Foreign Affairs committee ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas told Fox News host Harris Faulkner.

Some history:

On November 13, 2001, shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush announced that the SPR would be filled, saying, "The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an important element of our Nation's energy security. ...
On August 17, 2005, the SPR reached its goal of 700 million barrels (110,000,000 m3). Approximately 60% of the crude oil in the reserve is the less desirable sour (high sulfur content) variety. The oil delivered to the reserve is "royalty-in-kind" oil—royalties owed to the U.S. government by operators who acquire leases on the federally owned Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has since directed the Secretary of Energy to fill the SPR to the full 1 billion barrels (160,000,000 m3) authorized capacity, a process which will require a physical expansion of the Reserve's facilities.
On January 23, 2007, President Bush suggested in his State of the Union speech that Congress should approve expansion of the current reserve capacity to twice its current level.[20]
On May 16, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it would halt all deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve sometime in July. This announcement came days after Congress voted to direct the Bush administration to do the same.[21]
On September 9, 2011, a Notice of Cancellation was published in the Federal Register after Congress rescinded funding for the expansion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, reversing the SPR expansion initiative previously directed under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.[16]
On October 20, 2014, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended reducing the size of the Reserve. According to the report, the amount of oil held in reserve exceeds the amount required to be kept on hand given the need for imported crude oil had decreased in recent years. The report said the DOE agreed with the GAO recommendation.[22]
Since 2015, Congress has been selling the oil in the reserve to fund the deficit, in unpublicized sales. The U.S. Department of Energy has run at least seven sales since 2017, selling 132 million barrels, or about 18.2% of what had been in the reserve.[8][9]
On March 19, 2020, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Energy to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to maximum capacity. This directive was given to help support domestic oil producers given the impending economic collapse from COVID-19 and extreme drops in international oil markets.[23] However, funding was blocked by Congress.[24]
On March 31, 2022, President Joe Biden announced that his administration would release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the reserve for the next 180 days.[10]
According to legislation already in place, the amount of oil in the reserve could fall to as little as 238 million barrels by 2028.[11] This will be a 67% reduction to the oil in the reservoir since 2010. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Petroleum_Reserve_(United_States)

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