H.R. 10262: 21st Century Strategic Petroleum Reserve Act

This bill would require the Secretary of Energy, within 90 days after enactment, to ask the National Petroleum Council to study how to modernize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR is the federal government’s emergency stockpile of petroleum used to help respond to major supply disruptions.

What the required report would cover

The National Petroleum Council would have one year after the request to send Congress and the Secretary of Energy a report that:

• Reviews ways to improve the SPR’s physical infrastructure and day-to-day operations so it can respond better to petroleum supply shocks.
• Looks at whether the SPR should be spread across more geographic locations.
• Examines whether the SPR should store refined petroleum products, not just crude oil.
• Considers removing congressionally mandated sales of petroleum products from the reserve.
• Looks at building storage facilities that can better handle the amount and frequency of drawdowns seen in the last 10 years.
• Examines whether the SPR should be able to store more petroleum overall.
• Looks at ways to buy petroleum when prices are low to help refill the reserve.
• Studies how to increase both the speed at which the reserve can be filled and the ability of its pipelines to move oil in both directions.
• Includes any recommendations for federal agencies and Congress on how to modernize the reserve.
• Analyzes the Life Extension II project, including work that was planned but not carried out.

Public release

The bill would also require the report to be made publicly available.

What the bill does not do

This bill does not itself change how the Strategic Petroleum Reserve operates, fund construction projects, or mandate any specific upgrades. It mainly orders a study and report that could inform future policy decisions.

Relevant Companies

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