参议院共和党议员、来自阿肯色州的汤姆·科顿（Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.）指控称，在美国持续与伊朗交战以及伊朗政府继续控制霍尔木兹海峡的背景下，拜登政府决定动用战略石油储备（SPR）可能会产生连锁反应。
科顿在致能源部长克里斯·赖特（Chris Wright）的一封信中（福克斯新闻数字版率先获取）指控称，拜登政府在2022年从国家储备中释放了1.8亿桶石油，“以在中期选举前抑制汽油价格”。
[美国表示准备护送油轮通过霍尔木兹海峡，尽管交通流量减少但尚未启动任务]
阿肯色州共和党参议员汤姆·科顿希望了解，在伊朗战争持续期间，为何乔·拜登政府耗尽了国家石油储备却未予补充。（Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images）
“这一决定将储备降至40年来的最低水平，”科顿写道，“动用战略石油储备的决定并非针对供应紧急情况，而是一项蓄意的政治行为，旨在保护民主党人免受其自身失败能源政策的后果影响。”
拜登曾两次动用战略石油储备——一次是在2021年，以缓解飙升的燃油价格，当时美国仍在应对新冠疫情的经济影响；另一次是在次年，以应对俄乌战争爆发初期能源成本的上升。
战略石油储备的容量超过7亿桶原油，但在现任政府之前的消耗后，目前储备量远低于此。
[舒默曾阻挠特朗普补充国家石油储备的行动，如今却要求开放储备]
2024年5月15日，美国总统乔·拜登在华盛顿特区的一次活动中发表讲话。（AP Photo/Susan Walsh）
根据美国能源部的数据，截至拜登任期结束时，储备中约有4.15亿桶原油。
科顿表示，这并非“民主党人首次破坏储备”，并指出纽约州参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默（Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.）和国会民主党人在2020年阻止了特朗普总统试图补充战略石油储备的努力，当时油价低廉，国会通过的一项庞大新冠疫情刺激法案中有30亿美元可用于此。
他还指出，2021年拜登签署了一项行政命令，暂停了联邦土地和近海地区的新石油和天然气租赁，科顿指控这“在政府耗尽储备的同时限制了国内石油产量”。
[能源部长称，油轮在中东的正常航行可能在“最坏情况下几周内恢复”，结束石油供应激增]
本周，能源部长克里斯·赖特在法国国际能源署发表讲话。（Ana Lopez/Getty Images）
科顿要求赖特解释，阻止那30亿美元石油采购以及暂停石油和天然气租赁，如何影响了本可用于补充战略石油储备的国内总供应量。
与此同时，随着伊朗战争加剧，油价在周末飙升至四年高位，国会民主党人正要求特朗普动用战略石油储备。
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舒默表示，储备“正是为这种时刻而存在的”。
“霍尔木兹海峡是全球最重要的石油运输咽喉，近年来约有20%的全球石油液体消费量通过该海峡，”科顿说，“这正是为何战略石油储备必须被视为[国家战略安全资产]，而非政治工具。”
亚历克斯·米勒是福克斯新闻数字版的记者，负责报道美国参议院事务。
FIRST ON FOX: A top Senate Republican wants answers on why the Biden administration drained the nation’s oil stockpile but did little to replenish it.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., charged that decisions under President Joe Biden to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) could have a ripple effect as the U.S. continues its war with Iran and as the Iranian government continues its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Cotton, in a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital to Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, charged that the Biden administration released 180 million barrels from the nation’s reserves in 2022 “to suppress gas prices ahead of the midterm elections.”
[US SIGNALS READINESS TO ESCORT TANKERS THROUGH HORMUZ AS TRAFFIC THINS BUT NO MISSION LAUNCHED]
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wants answers on why the nation’s oil reserves were drained, but not refilled, by former President Joe Biden as the war in Iran continues.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“That decision drained the reserve to a 40-year low,” Cotton wrote. “The decision to [drain the SPR] was not a response to a supply emergency; it was a deliberate political act designed to protect Democrats from the consequences of their own failed energy policies.”
Biden tapped the reserve twice — once in 2021 to relieve soaring fuel prices as the nation still grappled with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and again the following year to combat increased energy costs at the onset of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The SPR has capacity for over 700 million barrels of crude oil, but currently, the reserve has far less following the drawdown under the previous administration.
[SCHUMER ONCE BLOCKED TRUMP’S MOVE TO FILL THE NATION’S OIL RESERVES, NOW HE WANTS THEM OPENED]
President Joe Biden speaks during an event in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 2024.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
At the end of Biden’s term, the reserve had about 415 million barrels of crude on hand, according to data from the Department of Energy.
Cotton said that it wasn’t “the first time Democrats undermined the reserve” and noted that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and congressional Democrats blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to refill the SPR in 2020, when barrels were cheap, with $3 billion from a colossal COVID-19 stimulus package moving through Congress.
He also said that in 2021, Biden signed an executive order that halted new oil and gas leases on federal lands and offshore, which Cotton charged “constrained domestic production while the administration was draining the reserve.”
[TANKERS TO RESUME NORMAL MOVEMENT IN MIDDLE EAST IN ‘A FEW WEEKS’ AT WORST, ENERGY SEC SAYS, ENDING OIL SURGE]
Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaks at the International Energy Agency in France this week.(Ana Lopez/Getty Images)
Cotton demanded that Wright answer how blocking the $3 billion oil purchase and halting oil and gas leases impacted the nation’s overall domestic supplies that could have been used to replenish the SPR.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are demanding that Trump tap into the SPR after oil prices spiked to four-year highs over the weekend as the war in Iran intensifies.
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Schumer said that the reserve “exists for moments exactly like this.”
“The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important oil transit choke point, with roughly 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption moving through it in recent years,” Cotton said. “That is precisely why the SPR must be treated as a [strategic national security asset], not a political tool.”
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
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