Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business to discuss reports President Biden plans to release more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) ahead of midterm elections. Excerpts and full video are below.
On Strategic Petroleum Reserve Releases:
“It will backfire. First of all, it’s going to have a minimal effect on the price of gasoline. Second of all, we’re already down to only a three week supply… So let’s just say, for example, Hurricane Ian’s younger brother, Hurricane Isaac, comes into the Gulf Coast and wipes out the coast of Texas and the coast of Louisiana. Suddenly we need all of that capacity they were producing. Instead of unleashing the Bakken, West Texas, or other areas in the United States, [we] need to go to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s only been tapped three times, twice in times of war and the other time [was] during Hurricane Katrina. We’ve made ourselves dependent again. It’s so absurd. It’s so wrong economically. From a national security [and] a geopolitical common sense standpoint, we should be using our resources to influence the world rather than being influenced by the world. And it is, to your point, very transparent that [Joe Biden is] doing this on the eve of an election in a year that is going very poorly for Democrats.”
On Biden’s Failing Energy Policy:
“We should be drilling more in the United States. We live in a time of oil abundance, not oil scarcity. The [crude oil] embargo happened in 1973 as a result of the Yom Kippur War… the difference being as a weapon of war oil is now abundant in the United States, not scarce like it was back then.”
“[Saudi Arabia is] very important to us right now in the Middle East at a time when [Joe Biden is] negotiating with Iran for crying out loud. Our leverage on Iran is Saudi Arabia. Our leverage on Saudi Arabia is the fact that we can be oil sufficient, independent—even abundant. We don’t need them for oil. We need to start playing our leverage rather than giving up our leverage and then talking tough as though they somehow owe us something.”