10.19.22

Hoeven: Biden Administration Needs to Stop Draining the SPR, Must Take the Handcuffs off U.S. Oil & Gas Producers

FARGO, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today issued the following statement after President Biden announced a plan to release an additional 15 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). 

“The Biden administration has been draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, dropping it to the lowest level in 40 years, while begging OPEC+ to produce more oil,” said Hoeven. “Instead of draining our reserves and making the U.S. subject to the whims of OPEC, the Biden administration needs to take the handcuffs off U.S. oil and gas producers. Empowering domestic energy production is the right long-term solution to lower energy costs and provide hardworking families relief at the pump.”

Hoeven continues pushing back on the Biden administration’s harmful energy agenda, including:

  • Working to end the administration’s oil and gas moratorium on federal lands and to move forward with all postponed and future lease sales.
  • Working to streamline the approval of key energy projects, like the North Bakken Expansion Pipeline.
  • Introducing legislation that takes immediate action to increase U.S. energy production, including:
    • Prohibiting any presidential moratoria on new energy leases.
    • Requiring the administration to hold oil and natural gas lease sales in each state with land available for leasing.
    • Prohibiting drawdowns of the SPR until the Interior Secretary issues a plan to increase oil and gas production on federal lands. 

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