BISMARCK — Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer issued statements after President Biden announced a release of 50 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

“The policies of the Biden administration and the Democrats are making it harder to produce more energy here at home. In an energy rich nation like ours, it makes no sense that President Biden has been asking our adversaries and OPEC for more oil, and is now tapping into the SPR. Starting on day one, this administration shut down the Keystone pipeline, issued a moratorium on leasing for federal lands, and then removed sanctions on the Nord Stream 2, making Europe more dependent on Russia for natural gas. Instead of saddling our energy producers with increasing regulations and discouraging new production, the administration should be empowering the people who produce energy in this country. They do it better than anyone in the world, and they do it with the best environmental stewardship.”

Hoeven is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Cramer said, “Releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is absolutely not the solution to bringing high gas prices down. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is meant for supplying energy during national emergencies. The only national emergency is President Biden’s awful energy policy in which he has purposefully curtailed American production and then embarrassingly pleaded OPEC to make up the difference. It’s clear to me the Biden administration doesn’t know they need to provide regulatory certainty and embrace domestic energy production if we want to see lower prices at the gas pump and then everything else in the value chain. But we all know this is a non-starter for an administration hellbent on destroying North Dakota’s excellence and America’s energy dominance.”