Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, released the following statements following President Biden’s announcements about how the Administration plans to respond to rising energy costs across the country.

In response to the President’s intent to issue a directive authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act to secure American production of critical minerals, Chairman Manchin said:

"I am pleased that President Biden has taken seriously our bipartisan call to strengthen our domestic critical minerals supply chain by invoking the Defense Production Act to increase production of five vital battery minerals. These minerals are essential to the technologies we have come to depend on and accelerating their production is vital to our energy and national security. Building out our domestic supply chain and reducing our reliance on Russia, China and other adversarial nations is more important than ever before. I urge the Administration to continue using all the tools at their disposal and working with Congress to unlock the full potential of our nation’s vast natural resources to deny any nation the ability to use supply chain dependencies against us and our allies.”

In response to the announcement that the U.S. Department of Energy will release one million barrels of oil per day for 180 days from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Chairman Manchin said:

“President Biden’s decision to use our Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the next six months will provide much needed relief while also allowing for the simultaneous ramping up of domestic oil and gas production to backfill Russian energy resources. I am hopeful that our allies around the world will join us in this effort to provide relief from rising prices. While it is an effective tool, the SPR isn’t a long-term solution. The U.S. can produce energy cleaner than anywhere else in the world and it is important we have a balanced approach that supports increased domestic production that can get into the market in the coming weeks and months and that we establish a strategic plan to refill our reserves.”

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