An amendment pushed by Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to bar President Joe Biden from selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve crashed and burned in a massive bipartisan defeat Thursday.
The amendment failed 14-418, with only 14 Republicans in support. In announcing the amendment, Greene accused Biden of being a threat to the nation’s national security and tricking and deceiving voters by pulling from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices. Evidently, not many other lawmakers agreed or thought the amendment prudent.
REPUBLICANS’ HOUSE RULE CHANGE OPENS DOOR FOR DEMOCRATS TO SCORE POLITICAL POINTS
Marjorie Taylor Greene amendment fails 14-418 pic.twitter.com/1zYxOadvBo
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 26, 2023
The reserve was depleted after Biden ordered hundreds of millions of barrels of oil to be drawn down last year on an emergency basis to help tame high gasoline prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting spike in oil prices.
However, last December, the Department of Energy said it would begin purchasing oil to refill the reserve following a dip in prices. On Monday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said her agency would be able to refill the emergency oil stockpile without trouble despite a lack of interest in an earlier purchase attempt.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a frequent antagonist of Greene’s, had a laugh at the Georgia Republican’s expense following the failed amendment.
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“Woof. Even my psilocybin amendment did better than this,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
After steady declines since the peaks of last summer, gas prices have risen once again, with the average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. sitting at $3.50, up from $3.10 a month ago and $3.34 a year ago, according to AAA.
