In the days leading up to the Biden administration’s historic release of 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in late 2021, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm held multiple conversations with China National Energy Administration Chairman Zhang Jianhua.
This discovery, found on internal Energy Department calendars acquired by Americans for Public Trust and reported first through Fox News Digital, raises questions regarding the potential influence of Chinese officials on the U.S. energy strategy during the Biden Administration.
Granholm’s discussions with Jianhua, a senior figure within the Chinese Communist Party, were held on Nov. 19 and Nov. 21 of 2021.
Only two days after the second conversation, the Biden administration made its announcement to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in an effort to counteract rising gas prices. This release, totaling 50 million barrels, marked the largest withdrawal from the reserve in U.S. history.
Last year, a Washington Free Beacon story focused on 1 million barrels of the reserve’s oil that was sold to Unipec America, a subsidiary of Chinese government-owned oil and gas company Sinopec. The organization has connection to the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who was part of BHR, an investment company that had a stake in a Sinopec subsidiary.
In 2020, the New York Times wrote that “Companies associated with Hunter Biden or his business partners have struck several deals involving China over the past decade.” As of 2022, Hunter Biden still had a minority stake in BHR, although Hunter’s lawyer told the New York Times late in 2022 that he no longer had any financial interest in the company, either directly or indirectly.
“No evidence has emerged that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. traded favors with the Chinese government to help his son Hunter,” the Times wrote in March of 2020, during the election cycle.
Americans for Public Trust is not so sure.
“Secretary Granholm’s multiple closed-door meetings with a CCP-connected energy official raise serious questions about the level of Chinese influence on the Biden administration’s energy agenda,” APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News.
Sutherland further criticized the Secretary, suggesting that instead of working toward American energy independence, Granholm seems to be echoing Chinese energy rhetoric, remarking that “we can all learn from what China is doing.”
Sutherland continued: “The public deserves to know the extent to which Chinese officials are attempting to infiltrate U.S. energy policy and security.”
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve level has now dropped below 350 million barrels of crude., down 27% from what is was one year ago, due to continual sell-offs of oil by the Biden Administration, and continued cancellations of buy-backs.
Rep. Mary Peltola, the only member of Congress representing Alaska, skipped out on voting to protect the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from being sold off to China earlier this year, and later said it didn’t matter how she voted since the Senate is controlled by Democrats and the bill would die there.
