“Funding Putin’s War Machine”: Biden Keeps Russian Oil Flowing

The Biden-Harris administration is refusing to block the import of Russian oil to the United States, which Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul pointed out was “funding Putin’s war machine”. 

CNN: The White House on Wednesday appeared to downplay its openness to sanctioning Russian oil as a means of punishing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The administration declined to rule it out entirely but said doing so was not in US strategic interests. . .

Even Democrats are slamming Biden’s inaction. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said it “has to stop” and Montana Sen. Jon Tester demanded to know “what the hell the reason is”.

The U.S. currently imports around 500,000 barrels of oil from Russia every day. Multiple bills, introduced by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, would ban the importation of Russian oil. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced one of the bills and blamed the Biden administration for backing policies that hurt American energy producers, limiting America’s ability to replace Russian oil with our own.

Politico: Targeting Russian energy is the “most significant” tool left for the U.S. to deploy, the Alaska senator said in an interview, and given President Vladimir Putin’s dependence on oil and gas revenues, it’s “the one that can do the most immediate damage to Russia in halting their efforts.”

“He [Putin] has used energy as a weapon and we are afraid to have it on the table? I’m sorry, he put it on the table,” Murkowski said. . .

“How easy is it to replace it? We have to remember it’s not like this country just has a dial you can ramp up from a three to a seven when you have put in place policies that inhibit investment within the industry that limit your ability to ramp up quickly. It’s hard to dial it back up,” Murkowski said.

Republicans unveiled a plan to increase domestic energy production that would lower prices for American consumers, boost our national security and end our reliance on foreign oil — including Russia’s.

Fox News: Republicans Tuesday said there are five things Biden could do now that would make boost domestic oil production and hurt Russia: Ending the pause on new oil and gas leases and permits, fast-tracking pending liquefied natural gas (LNG) export permits, expediting approval of all pending pipelines and stopping the “regulatory assault” on American energy development and financing. 

Bottom Line: Banning Russian oil imports would be more painful because of the Biden-Harris administration’s war on domestic energy production. In the meantime, the Biden-Harris administration is lining Putin’s pockets with American dollars by purchasing hundreds of thousands of barrels of Russian oil every day.