Murkowski, Manchin Lead Way to Ban Russian Oil…Yet the White House Says “No”

March 4, 2022

In another example of blind allegiance to a position that becomes worse day after day, the White House has continued to draw a line in the sand when it comes to halting the importing of Russian oil, despite strong, bi-partisan Congressional pressure to do so.

Led by the moderate duo of Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin – who have teamed up to spearhead and pass a number of solid energy and resource development bills recently – the Senate is taking a hard-line approach to Russia’s continued exporting of its oil to the U.S.

Their efforts, dovetailing on weeks of Republican pressure in Congress to stop feeding the Russian economy through importing Russia’s oil, has strong consideration from usually-confrontational Democrats, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quoted as saying “I’m all for that. Ban it. Ban the oil coming from Russia.”

With the Biden Administration hell-bent on pushing a “just transition” away from oil and gas and toward renewable energy – and issuing obstacles to domestic oil and gas production at horrifyingly regular intervals as a result – it needs to continue to import oil, as the domestic supply can’t keep up with demand today. 

That’s a radical change from when the U.S. was a net exporter of oil only 15 months ago.  During that same period, gas prices are up nearly $1.50 a gallon in some parts of the nation, tens of thousands of traditional energy workers sit on unemployment rolls (waiting for those ‘green jobs’ Biden promised to magically appear) and American families face historic inflation, mounting bills and uncertain futures.

Last week, Power The Future was among the first to implore the President to unleash American energy solutions in an effort to reestablish our nation’s energy independence.  It is good to see the U.S. Senate take steps to join us in that call.  Unfortunately, efforts to-date – and judging by Jen Psaki’s outright denial that anything needs to be done right now – are being met with confusion and outright tone-deaf ears at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.