Sponsors (2)
The bill directs a rapid expert review to strengthen and possibly expand SPR capabilities—potentially improving fuel security and reliability—while risking higher federal costs, market distortions from replenishment purchases, and changes to budgetary receipts or emergency sale mechanisms.
Motorists, freight operators, regional consumers, and taxpayers: a required federal report and expert analysis will identify ways to strengthen SPR storage and expand geographic distribution, improving fuel supply resilience and regional access during supply shocks.
Motorists and freight operators: evaluating the feasibility of adding refined petroleum products to the SPR could reduce the risk of gasoline and diesel shortages in crises.
Taxpayers and state governments: reviewing the Life Extension II project and any uncompleted scope may identify cost-saving fixes or necessary investments to extend SPR facility life and reliability.
Taxpayers: implementing recommendations to expand or modernize the SPR could increase federal spending and raise costs borne by taxpayers.
Energy producers, refiners, and taxpayers: encouraging purchases to replenish the SPR during price dips could distort oil markets or shift demand in ways that harm some producers and have secondary economic effects.
Taxpayers and budget planners: analyzing the elimination of congressionally mandated SPR sales could reduce a predictable source of federal receipts or remove an established mechanism for emergency market supply, complicating fiscal planning and emergency response.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs the Secretary of Energy to request an NPC report within 90 days and for the NPC to deliver a publicly releasable SPR modernization analysis within one year.
Official title: To require the Secretary of Energy to request the National Petroleum Council to issue a report with respect to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 3, 2026 by Elizabeth Pannill Fletcher · Last progress September 3, 2026
Requires the Secretary of Energy to ask the National Petroleum Council to produce a publicly releasable report, within one year, identifying opportunities to modernize and improve the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The report must analyze options such as wider geographic distribution, increased storage capacity, adding refined petroleum products to inventories, removing congressionally mandated sales, and upgrades to storage and pipeline capabilities. Sets near-term deadlines: the Secretary must request the report within 90 days of enactment and the Council must deliver it within one year of that request. The report also must include recommendations to federal agencies and Congress and evaluate the Life Extension II project, including work originally planned but not completed.