Op-Ed: It’s Time to Unleash American Energy Again

This article originally appeared in Daily Caller on January 25, 2023

This month, the House of Representatives fired its first energy reform salvo — a bill prohibiting oil sales from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This Thursday, the House is set to vote on another bill targeting the Biden Administration’s politically driven raids on the SPR. Unlike the prohibition legislation directed at our primary adversary, this second bill is focused on our Nation’s energy needs — a return to supply-side growth.

Sending a resoundingly clear signal of support for strategic decoupling with the CCP is a good undertaking. Congress should do it more often and, when they do, make it matter. The Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act certainly has the benefit of putting the CCP on notice, but because oil from the SPR is sold onto the open market, any purchasing entity can turn around and sell into the Chinese market. Penalizing those resellers may put a stop to that, but even then, there is a fundamental point to remember – oil is a highly fungible global commodity.

Alleviating supply-side pressures in Southeast Asia or Europe would increase oil market liquidity and drive down prices here at home. After all, this is a core reason Congress repealed the ban on oil exports in 2015 on the heels of the shale revolution. ..

Read full op-ed in Daily Caller