and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member John Barrasso, R-Wyo. – requested in a letter Monday that the Government Accountability Office probe the Department of Energy . They argue that the agency's heavy reliance on the SPR has undermined U.S. energy security.
"DOE’s mismanagement of the SPR has undermined America’s energy security, leaving the nation more vulnerable to energy supply disruptions, and increasing the ability for OPEC and Russia to use energy as a geopolitical weapon," McMorris Rodgers and Barrasso wrote in the letter to Gene Dodaro, the GAO's comptroller.
"DOE has failed to establish long-term plans for the optimal size, configuration, maintenance, and operational capabilities of the reserve," they added."We are concerned that the rapid depletion of the SPR may have caused structural damage to the SPR’s pipelines and caverns, compromising its ability to meet its energy security mission in the event of a true energy supply disruption.
President Biden has ordered three massive releases from the emergency reserve, taking its level from 638 million barrels to 362 million barrels, a 43% decline. They noted that the SPR, which consists of four storage facilities in Texas and Louisiana, is made up of a system of wells, pipelines and pumps that use water and brine to control oil flows. The lawmakers expressed concern that the repeated drawdown of oil stocks from the system could ultimately erode the SPR’s physical integrity.