Joe Biden Announces Ban On U.S. Imports Of Russian Oil

Joe Biden announced that the U.S. will ban imports of Russian oil, the latest move to sanction Vladimir Putin’s regime after its invasion of Ukraine.

But Biden warned that the ban will come at a price, as gas prices already have been soaring.

“This is a step that we are taking to inflict further pain on Putin, but there will be costs as well here in the United States,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “I said I will level with the American people from the beginning. When I first spoke to this, I said defending freedom is going to cost. It is going to cost us as well in the United States…Republicans and Democrats alike have been clear that we must do this.”

The remarks were carried by cable news networks and on NBC and ABC broadcast stations.

Britain announced that it would phase out Russian oil imports. But Biden acknowledged that “many of our European allies and partners may not be in a position to join us. The United States produces far more oil domestically than all of the European countries combined.”

About 8% of U.S. oil imports came from Russia last year, per ABC News. Although that is not a huge share of U.S. imports, the ban comes as prices have been rising about $4 per gallon. “And with this action, it is going to go up further,” Biden said, as he said that 60 million barrels would be released from the joint oil reserves.

But Biden is banking on bipartisan support, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been calling for such a move. The president also pushed back against the idea that the current rise in prices is due to the administration’s energy policy,

“Even amid the pandemic, companies in the United States pumped more oil during my first year in office than they did during my predecessor’s first year,” he said. “We’re approaching record levels of oil and gas production in the United States and we’re on track to set a record for oil production next year.”

The president did warn oil companies against excessive price increases “or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation.”

More to come.