A bipartisan push for the U.S. to stop importing oil from Russia is gaining steam with the introduction of two bills amid Moscow’s bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, President Joe Biden was slammed by critics for implementing initially limited sanctions as tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders and as Russian jets bombed targets across the former Soviet republic.
“Are you considering banning Russian oil imports?” a reporter asked Biden on the White House lawn as he departed on a trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin Wednesday. “Nothing is off the table,” the president answered.
Biden added that it was “too soon to say” if Russian troops are committing war crimes against Ukrainian civilians, but that he believes Russia is targeting residential areas.
“Do you believe Russia is intentionally targeting civilian areas? There are over 2,000 civilian deaths right now according to [Ukraine’s government],” a reporter said. “It’s clear they are,” Biden responded.
Bipartisan support to end Russian oil imports
White House officials said last week they were intentionally safeguarding the flow of Russian fossil fuels, despite supporters of Ukraine claiming that energy purchases are funding Moscow’s war machine.
But a number of things have happened since the weekend, including Germany stopping certification of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe.
UK-based oil giant, BP petroleum was joined by Norwegian energy giant Equinor the other day in distancing themselves from Russian energy companies. And just yesterday, ExxonMobil disclosed it would exit its last Russia operations in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
And on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada will ban imports of Russian crude oil. The Russian oil ban applies only to crude oil for now, but the government is looking at oil derivative products next, a government source said.
The pros and cons of banning Russian oil imports
The sanctions imposed on Russia for its war with Ukraine so far do not include oil and gas exports from the country, a step that would severely hurt Russia’s ability to generate revenue, according to ABC News.
Of the 7.86 million barrels per day the U.S. imported in 2020, the majority came from its North American neighbors: Canada, with 4.13 million barrels (52.5%), and Mexico, with 750,000 (9.6%).
Russia, with 540,000 barrels a day (6.6 percent), was the top non-continental contributor. Roughly 11% of the imports came collectively from OPEC countries, including 520,000 from Saudi Arabia.
And the rather small amount of oil the U.S. gets from Russia is one argument for banning Russian oil imports, with critics saying that ramping up domestic production is a way to help wean the nation and its allies off oil from Russia.
Jacques Rousseau, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners, says cutting off Russian oil to the U.S. would not effect us as much as it would other countries who rely heavily on the gas and oil.
The U.S. does not import gas from Russia, but Europe relies on natural gas from Russia for a third of its supply.
But the Ukraine crisis prompted an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday of the International Energy Agency’s board, which resulted in all 31 member countries agreeing to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves — half of that from the United States – “to send a strong message to oil markets” that supplies won’t fall short.
IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of 1.5 billion barrels. The announcement of an initial release of 60 million barrels, or 4 percent of those stockpiles, is equivalent to 2 million barrels a day for 30 days. The coordinated drawdown is the fourth in the history of the IEA, which was created in 1974. Previous collective actions were taken in 2011, 2005 and 1991.
