He Department of Energy announced on Friday that it purchased 2.4 million barrels of crude oil for the SPR, which is the United States’ emergency oil reserve. With that, the agency said, it bought or canceled the sale of 200 million barrels of oil for the SPR, 20 million more than were sold on an emergency basis under Biden.

In 2022, the Biden administration began leveraging SPR when Russia invaded Ukraine to counter rising oil prices.

The Energy Department said it has used all of its emergency revenue earned from the 2022 sale to secure the recent oil purchase.

The department said it has purchased 59 million barrels of oil for the SPR at an average price of less than $76 per barrel, which is $20 less than the average selling price for 2022 emergency sales. The administration also worked with Congress to cancel the mandatory sale of 140 million barrels.

“With the award of these contracts, the DOE has fully utilized all funds allocated for crude oil purchases following the sale of 180 million barrels in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has secured an additional 20 million barrels at a good price for taxpayers,” said the Secretary of Energy. Jennifer Granholm.

Some Republican lawmakers said President Joe Biden was abusing America’s emergency oil reserves and putting America’s energy security at risk.

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Earlier this year, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-WY ), Granholm was warned. against recourse to reservation.

“We urge you, in the strongest terms, to put this country’s energy security first and stop abusing the SPR for political purposes,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is your responsibility to ensure that the SPR is ready to respond to true power disruptions.”