Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm released 50 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after holding conversations with China National Energy Administration chairman Zhang Jianhua, per a new report.
Internal calendars from the Department of Energy were first obtained by Americans for Public Trust and broken by Fox News Digital on Friday afternoon.
Granholm, the former governor of Minnesota, spoke with Zhang on at least two prior occasions in 2021 – November 19 and November 21 – after which the White House released millions of barrels of oil from its strategic reserve.
“I brought together other nations to contribute to the solution,” President Joe Biden said at the time. “India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom have agreed to release additional oil from their reserves. And China may do more as well. This coordinated action will help us deal with the lack of supply, which in turn helps ease prices.”
While China was expected to simultaneously release a portion of its oil stockpile onto the market, it did the opposite and expanded its energy reserves over the intervening months, chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wa.), said in a June 2022 letter to Secretary Granholm.
“Before telling the American people of their plans to undermine our energy security by draining the SPR at record rates for political purposes before the midterm elections, Secretary Granholm reportedly first secretly consulted with the Chinese Communist Party,” Representative McMorris Rodgers said in a statement following the news on Friday.
“Since then, DOE — under her leadership — has sold millions of barrels of oil from our SPR to China — the world’s biggest polluter,” she added. “It would appear Secretary Granholm meant it when she said America should ‘learn’ from what China is doing.”
Representative Steve Scalise (R., La.) similarly took the opportunity to condemn the White House’s conduct following the revelations. “The Biden administration secretly colluded with the Chinese Communist Party to help lower energy prices in China while hardworking American taxpayers were left to pay more at the pump here at home,” the House Majority Leader said. “They always put America last.”
According to data from the Energy Information Administration, as of August 2023, the SPR level has fallen to its lowest level since August 1983.
Solving the climate crisis means engaging with competitors and allies in clear and substantive discussions — especially among the nations emitting the most carbon pollution into the atmosphere,” a department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We must all address the transnational challenge of climate change to our planet.”