GOP Wants Blood Amid Reports That Biden Sold Oil From Strategic Reserve to Hunter-linked PRC Gas Co
15:12 GMT 09.07.2022 (Updated: 16:02 GMT 09.07.2022)
© AFP 2023 / LIU Jin
Subscribe
Last week, Reuters reported that over five million barrels-worth of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve released by the Biden administration to help ease gas prices in the United States had instead been shipped to refineries in Europe, India and China.
Some 950,000 of the oil released from the SPR to cope with spiraling gasoline prices may have wound up in depots controlled by Sinopec, the Chinese state-owned energy giant which Hunter Biden co-founded capital market firm BHR Partners has a $1.7 billion stake in, the Washington Free Beacon has reported, citing Department of Energy (DoE) data and information previously disclosed by Chinese and US business regulators.
In a press release in April detailing President Biden’s release of one million barrels of oil per day from the SPR amid the energy crunch, the DoE indicated that Unipec America, Inc., a subsidiary of Sinopec, had been awarded 950,000 barrels of oil as part of the US’s “price-competitive sale of 30 million barrels of SPR crude oil.”
A source told Reuters last week that at least one tanker load of crude from the SPR had been sent off to China. Oil tankers typically carry between 190,000 and 345,000 barrels of oil (8-14.5 million gallons), according to the US Energy Information Administration. However supersize tankers can transport up to 2 million barrels’ worth.
Last November, amid growing scrutiny of the Biden family’s finances over reports based on information from the laptop Hunter Biden accidentally left behind at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019, the younger Biden’s lawyers assured the New York Times that the president’s son “no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly,” in BHR Partners, which he cofounded in 2013.
However in March, a Washington Examiner investigation of business records from China’s National Credit Information Publicity System showed that Hunter Biden continued to hold a 10 percent stake in BHR Partners via his company Skaneateles LLC. US business records indicated at the time that he was the sole owner of Skaneateles. The Examiner admitted that it was possible that the Chinese business registry had failed to update the possible sale of BHR Partners by Mr. Biden, but also implied that the records raise questions about his finances, and possible continued links to foreign entities, despite his representatives’ assurances.
GOP Wants Blood
Republican lawmakers and candidates for the upcoming November midterm elections expressed outrage over the Free Beacon’s report, and said that it may be time to “impeach” the president.
“President Biden reportedly sold oil from American reserves to China’s Sinopec which Hunter Biden may still be tied to via his financial ventures in China,” Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, coauthor of a 2020 Senate probe into the younger Biden’s finances, tweeted. “If the report is correct, that’s OUTRAGEOUS,” Grassley wrote, adding that he and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin had highlighted Hunter’s alleged business connections to China in their 2020 report.
“At a time when Americans must pay record prices at the pump, President Biden should NOT be selling our strategic oil reserves to Communist China. This misguided and harmful action is the latest example of Biden’s failed energy policies, and needs further scrutiny, especially if his son’s China business could benefit,” Grassley wrote.
“Hunter is still business partners with the [Chinese Communist Party] and they are buying our oil. Can we impeach Joe Biden now???” Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted.
Joe Biden sold 1 M barrels of oil of our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to CCP owned Sinopec, which Hunter Biden is part owner of through his private equity firm, BHR Partners.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 8, 2022
Hunter is still business partners w/ the CCP & they are buying our oil.
Can we impeach Joe Biden now???
Congressional candidate from Kentucky Brent Feher echoed Greene’s suggestion, linking to the Free Beacon’s article and writing “Impeach NOW!” in a tweet.
3 July 2022, 15:17 GMT
Fox News host Tucker Carlson argued that the Reuters report on the export of SPR oil alone was enough for a possible criminal investigation.
“So, as gas prices set records in this country, as American citizens who were born here and vote and pay taxes cannot afford to fuel their own cars, the Biden administration is selling off our emergency oil reserves to China. That’s not an indictable offense? It’s certainly an impeachable one and they should impeach him for that. What, are they going to sell the Redwood Forest to China next? How about the water rights to the Great Lakes? That’s the equivalent of what [Biden] just did,” Carlson argued in a segment on Wednesday.
The host suggested that a “functioning Congress” would investigate the Biden family’s alleged business ties to China.
“The last president was impeached for what? Having a phone call with some corrupt Ukrainian politician. But now, [Congress] can’t be bothered. They’re still yelping about ‘January 6 was an insurrection’. They’re trying to ban your hunting rifle. So the White House is able to ignore the whole thing,” Carlson said.
Draining the SPR
The White House plans to continue releasing a million barrels of oil from the SPR through October. Last week, updated DoE data showed that the reserve’s inventory had dipped to its lowest level since the mid-1980s, and was sitting at a level sufficient for about 25 days’ worth of consumption if US production and imports were suddenly halted.
When he announced the SPR selloff in April, President Biden expressed hope that the move would help stabilize record gasoline prices. Instead, gas prices surged to their highest ever levels, topping $5.10 a gallon in mid-June before dipping to about $4.70 a gallon now, according to the American Automobile Association. Prices remain highest along the US West Coast, with Washingtonians, Oregonians and Californians paying between $5.37 and $6.11, AAA data shows.
