It has been almost two weeks since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. As a continued effort to punish Russia for its actions, President Joe Biden has announced the U.S. will ban all imports of Russian gas and oil.
"Today, I am announcing that the United States is targeting the main artery of Russia's economy," Biden said when making the announcement.
Russia is the world's third-largest energy producer, and imports from the country make up about 10% of the United States' gas and oil imports.
Several prominent U.S. officials had joined the call for this action in the last two weeks, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Senator Joe Manchin, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Biden pointed this out when making the announcement.
"Americans have rallied to support the Ukrainian people and made it clear we will not be part of subsidizing Putin's war," Biden said.
Blinken had shared with CNN's "State of the Union" over the weekend that the U.S. was working with its European allies to find a path forward on Russian oil and gas.
"We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil while making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets," Blinken said. "That's a very active discussion as we speak."
Biden echoed this, saying, "we can take this step when others can not," but added that the U.S. will also look to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian energy.
"This is a step we are taking to inflict further pain on Putin, but there will be a cost as well here in the United States," Biden said.
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The price of gas has shot up exponentially in the last few weeks, with the average price per gallon rising almost 60 cents in the last week alone, according to AAA.
Experts have said that Biden's move to ban Russia's oil and gas would impact global gas prices, but not as much as they will if the European Union decides to ban them as well.
Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy, an online gas monitoring website, warned that if the E.U. changes its mind to ban Russian oil and gas, prices could rise even higher than the near-record highs we are seeing now.
"The sky's the limit," De Haan said. "$150, $200 oil potentially because Europe has no backup, they are tied to the hip with Russia."
Biden said that prices are expected to rise even more with this action, but he is doing what he can to reduce the impact domestically. He said that 60 million barrels of oil have been released from joint oil reserves.
The president said that while Russia is affecting us all, this is no time for "profiteering or price gauging."
The president did not take questions after making his announcement.
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