Democratic Sen. Ed Markey is planning legislation that would ban imports of Russian petroleum products to the United States in an effort to cut off the major oil producer from key revenue streams while its military attacks Ukraine.
Markey’s office announced the bill on Tuesday, which would immediately halt imports as a means of inhibiting Russia from further financing its war against Ukraine.
DAILY ON ENERGY: THE LATEST ON THE PRESSURE ON BIDEN TO COUNTER HIGHER PRICES FROM RUSSIAN INVASION
“By weaning the United States off its continued reliance on the products of this corrupt Russian oil regime, the United States can deny Russia upwards of $20 billion in revenue in 2022,” reads a bill summary from Markey’s office. The summary cites figures showing the U.S.’s importation of 245 million barrels from Russia in 2021 was worth some $17.5 billion.
It said the bill would ensure U.S. consumers “aren’t subsidizing the costs of Putin’s war of illegal aggression against Ukraine or human rights abuses in Russia.”
Markey, a Green New Deal proponent and top advocate of limiting the use of fossil fuels, has been proactive about managing energy trade during this period of high and rising prices, leading colleagues last fall to press President Joe Biden to ban U.S. crude oil exports. He was also among 10 Senate Democrats who urged the Biden administration to take the same action on exports of liquefied natural gas last month.
The announcement coincided Tuesday with a call by Markey’s more conservative Democratic colleague, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Joe Manchin, for a ban on Russian imports.
“It’s time for the administration to take strong action to unleash American energy, up to and including banning Russian oil imports at a time when they are attacking our allies,” Manchin said during a committee hearing, calling Russian energy imports “hypocritical.”
Republicans have also been pressing policymakers in the U.S. and Europe to cut ties with Russian energy supplies. However, unlike Markey, they have called for Biden to encourage more domestic production of fossil fuels — a policy contrary to his climate change agenda and one he has resisted.
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An immediate cutoff of imports could send oil and gas prices upward. Biden had warned of the consequences of major disruptions to Russian oil exports to U.S. drivers even before the invasion began, and oil prices have risen significantly amid the fog of war — even without major disruptions being reported yet.
