Manchin defense spending amendment would prohibit Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to certain countries - WBOY.com
Manchin defense spending amendment would prohibit Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to certain countries
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 proposed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) would prohibit the sale of petroleum products from the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve to certain countries.
The move comes as Strategic Petroleum Reserve levels, as of the latest available Energy Information Administration data, on July 14, 2023, were at 346,759 thousand barrels, the lowest the reserve has been at since August 1983.
Manchin’s amendment would prohibit the sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserve products to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea and to their state-owned companies.
The Senate voted 85-14 to agree to the amendment, according to the Senate’s roll call vote records, the senators who voted against the amendment were:
- Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
- Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
- Cory Booker (D-NJ)
- Ben Cardin (D-MD)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Ed Markey (D-MA)
- Chris Murphy (D-CT)
- Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
- Brian Schatz (D-HI)
- Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
- Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
- Peter Welch (D-VT)
“Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. ramped up production and exports to help meet global demand. It had been devastating to the world. China, on the other hand, stockpiled oil and held back refinery production and while China was stockpiling, one of its state-owned companies purchased over 1.4 million barrels from the United States of America, the people of our great country, from our own stock of reserves. That’s what we’re trying to stop,” Manchin said, in part, during a Senate floor speech.
The move comes after, amid record high gas prices in 2022, reports that barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve were being sold to countries in Europe and Asia, including China.
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