Tom Cotton Demands Answers On Biden Era Withdrawals From Oil Reserves

As tensions with Iran rattle global energy markets, a leading Senate Republican is demanding answers about why the United States’ emergency oil stockpile was dramatically depleted during the Biden administration without being fully replenished.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is pressing the Department of Energy for details about decisions that significantly reduced the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), warning that those moves could now carry serious consequences as conflict in the Middle East threatens global oil supplies.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, first obtained by Fox News Digital, Cotton argued that the Biden administration’s massive drawdown of the reserve in 2022 was politically motivated rather than driven by a genuine energy emergency.

According to Cotton, the administration released roughly 180 million barrels of oil from the SPR in 2022 in an effort to lower gasoline prices ahead of the midterm elections.

“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.”

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the largest emergency crude oil supply in the world, was created to protect the United States against severe supply disruptions. The facility has the capacity to hold more than 700 million barrels of crude oil. However, after the Biden administration’s withdrawals, the stockpile was left significantly depleted.

Data from the Department of Energy shows that by the end of Biden’s presidency, the reserve contained about 415 million barrels of oil.

The Biden administration tapped the SPR twice during his presidency. The first release occurred in 2021 as gasoline prices surged during the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The second came in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global energy prices soaring.

Cotton argued that the depletion of the reserve was compounded by other energy policies that he believes restricted domestic production.