As America’s governing forces continue to look for ways to put the squeeze on Russian President Vladimir Putin without actually engaging in physical warfare, one heretofore-unexplored area is severing ties with Russian oil producers and shutting down that lucrative revenue stream for Putin’s war machine.
Several Democrats are pushing for President Joe Biden to halt all American daily importation of around 670,000 barrels of Russian oil, including high-profile centrist and Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
“We should stop buying over 600,000 barrels [of Russian oil] a day in America,” Manchin told reporters. “Can you believe that? No one knew that. No one paid attention to it. And that has to stop.”
To that end, Manchin has joined with a number of Republicans including Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to draft legislation that would prohibit any private companies or government entities from importing crude oil or petroleum into America from Russia, according to NBC News, who obtained a one-page draft of the bill.
But while Manchin and Murkowski continue to refine the bill and take on co-sponsors, some more progressive members of the left want to use the opportunity to take things even further.
Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts has his own bill on the table, the Severing Putin’s Immense Gains from Oil Transfers, or SPIGOT, Act.
Markey’s legislation would not only prohibit the importation of Russian oil and petroleum but would also outline a plan for emphasizing alternative energy sources.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are also looking to piggyback the issue of ending America’s purchases of Russian crude with their own tangential issue.
“We should commit to ending any import of Russian oil, but we need to open up American energy. And President Biden took that off the shelf,” said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. “What we need to do is open up more production in America so that we can undermine Putin’s ability to provide the world with oil.”
When asked about the viability of ending America’s financial relationship with Russian oil on Wednesday, Biden responded that “nothing is off the table.”
However, not every congressmember is onboard as concerns mount over the effect the elimination of Russian oil from the American marketplace would have on the American consumer, with gas prices already having risen sharply since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
“I think the fear from the White House,” Joint Economic Committee chairman Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said cautiously, “is that if you cut off Russian oil, you could make people suffer too much and you could weaken our resolve to be a strong supporter of Ukraine.”
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