Biden Admin Balks at Banning Russian Oil Imports Amid Putin's Invasion of Ukraine

What’s the story?

• The U.S. has imposed a number of sanctions against Russia following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, but one area of potentially damaging sanctions that it has avoided pursuing to date is banning imports of Russian oil and gas. The Biden administration has balked at such a move out of concern for the impact of rising energy prices on American consumers.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked for “all civilized countries to impose an embargo on Russian oil products” which he believes would be the most significant economic sanction that can be taken against Russia. Zelensky repeated his call for an oil embargo on Russia in a call with U.S. lawmakers Saturday morning. Ukrainian Parliament Member Alexey Goncharenko echoed that sentiment in an interview last week in which he said that an embargo is needed because “Russian oil and gas is full of Ukrainian blood.”
• In his state of the union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden made no mention of steps to block Russian energy imports and said only that he would release 30 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an amount that would only satisfy American consumption for roughly a day and a half.
• White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a press briefing Friday, “We are looking at options we could take right now to cut U.S. consumption of Russian energy, but we are very focused on minimizing the impact of families.” She elaborated on the administration’s opposition to an embargo against Russian energy by saying:

“Our — there isn’t a strategic interest in reducing global oil supply because that will ri- — that will increase the price of barrels of oil and increase gas prices.  So, we are looking at ways to — and I said yesterday, I believe, that we are looking at ways to reduce the import of Russian oil while also making sure that we are maintaining the global supply needs out there. I don’t have anything to predict in terms of what that will look like.  And we, of course, remain engaged with — with our friends in Congress.”

Bipartisan Support Builds for Russian Energy Ban

• Despite the Biden administration’s current opposition, there is a growing bipartisan push in Congress to ban energy imports from Russia. 
• Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-WV) and committee member Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced a bill known as the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act on Thursday with 16 bipartisan cosponsors. 
• Manchin explained, “The U.S. cannot continue to purchase more than half a million barrels of oil per day because in doing so, we are emboldening Putin to continue using his greatest weapon of war ― energy exports.” Murkowksi added:

“While the Biden administration has taken noteworthy steps to try to convince Vladimir Putin and his regime to stand down, we need an all-encompassing approach that uses every viable tool at our disposal. By leaving Russia’s energy exports untouched, the United States is ignoring one of our most potent options to stop the bloodshed. We must ban Russia’s energy imports into the U.S. so that Americans aren’t forced to help finance their growing atrocities and halt the Russian aggression.”

• A companion bill is expected to be introduced in the House by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who are the co-chairs of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. 
• Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) broke ranks with the White House by saying she supports a ban on Russian energy imports, as of Saturday morning she hasn’t indicated she will bring the bipartisan bill to the floor by placing it on the calendar.
• Axios reported Saturday that the Biden administration has undertaken a campaign to quietly pressure Democrats to not sign onto the bipartisan bill as cosponsors.

Status of U.S. Energy Imports From Russia

• The U.S. imported an average of 670,000 barrels of oil and petroleum products per day from Russia in 2021 according to the Energy Information Agency ― an increase of 24% in 2021 compared to 2020. 
• Preliminary EIA data for the week after Russia launched its invasion shows that U.S. imports of Russian oil fell to zero due to refineries’ fears of sanctions. 
• However, there is no guarantee that trend will continue without the federal government taking action with an outright ban on Russian energy imports. 
• Over the last year and a half there have been occasional weeks when Russian energy imports fell to zero during periods when there wasn’t such a broad push for an embargo on Russian petroleum products.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / MicroStockHub)