On Tuesday, President Biden announced a ban on imports of Russian oil, gas, and energy to the United States.
“Today I’m announcing the United States is targeting the main artery of Russia’s economy. We’re banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy,” Biden said during his speech.
“Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine,” he continued.
“This is a step that we’re taking to inflict further pain on Putin, but there will be costs as well here in the United States,” Biden warned. U.S. gas prices have hit an all-time high of $4.17 per gallon on average.
The president also defended his own energy policies, saying “It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production, that’s simply not true”.
“The oil and gas industry has millions of acres leased. They have 9,000 permits to drill now. They could be drilling right now, yesterday, last week, last year,” he added.
Similar to recent remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden called for further development of electric vehicles.
“Transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles powered by clean energy — with tax credits to help American families winterize their homes and use less energy — that will help and if we can and we do what we can, it will mean that no one has to worry about price of gas pump in the future,” he said.
“That will mean tyrants like Putin won’t be able to use fossil fuels as weapons against other nations and it will make America a world leader in manufacturing and exporting clean energy technologies of the future, to countries all around the world,” Biden continued.