Biden Bans Russian Oil Imports to the U.S.

The United States will no longer allow for the importation of Russian oil, President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday morning, the newest in a series of increasingly severe sanctions on Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.

“Russian oil will no longer be accepted at U.S. ports,” Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, the same location where the president has announced numerous economic measures since late February, each intended to punish Russia for its attempted occupation of neighboring Ukraine. “We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war.”

The oil embargo, Biden said, would target “the main artery of Russia’s economy.”

The details of the embargo—its timing and the pace of its implementation, in particular—were left ambiguous, with Biden telling reporters that he would “hold on that ’till we get more information.”

The announcement is a rapid shift in policy for the Biden administration, which only last week warned that an embargo would further increase American energy costs at a time when consumer prices are already rising due to pandemic-related inflation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Thursday that the United States doesn’t “have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy, and that would raise prices at the gas pump for the American people.”

“It’s as simple as: Less supply raises prices,” Psaki said.

The administration’s about-face on an embargo comes as Russia’s indiscriminate bombardment of civilian population centers has horrified Ukraine’s allies across the world. Russia’s invasion has already forced more than 1.5 million Ukrainian people to flee their homeland in what human rights organizations warn could be the greatest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the end of World War II.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken previewed a potential ban, saying in a news appearance on Sunday that the United States was in “active discussions” with allies about a potential embargo.

“I spoke to the president and the cabinet—the leading members of the cabinet—about this just yesterday from Europe, and we are now in very active discussions with our European partners about banning the import of Russian oil to our countries, while of course at the same time maintaining a steady global supply of oil,” Blinken said on NBC’s Meet the Press at the time.

Calls for the United States to forbid the importation of Russian oil have grown louder on Capitol Hill in recent days, with the introduction last Thursday of legislation that would have blocked those imports regardless of Biden’s stance. That bill, lead by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)—both of whom represent states whose economies would benefit from a reduction in foreign oil imports—had already won support from senators across the political spectrum, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

A U.S. ban alone won’t cut into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main export as severely as matching bans in Europe, however. Americans import roughly 400,000 barrels of Russian oil per day, whereas Europeans purchase more than 2.5 million barrels per day, making up more than half of Russian exports.

Even the harshest European critics, mindful of their growing reliance on both Russian oil and natural gas exports—nearly half of Europe’s natural gas comes from Russia—have balked at the idea of an import ban.

“We’re moving forward with this ban understanding that many of our European allies and partners may not be in a position to join us,” Biden said, allowing that the U.S. may stand more lonely in this sanction than on others against Russian oligarchs and other exports. “The United States produces far more oil domestically than all of Europe and all the European countries combined. In fact, we’re a net exporter of energy, so we can take this step when others cannot.”

Russia has threatened to retaliate against Europe if such an embargo were implemented, vowing to cut off Germany’s access to the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline, which imports nearly 70 percent of Germany’s natural gas.

“Europe has deliberately exempted energy supplies from Russia from sanctions,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement on Monday. “At the moment, Europe’s supply of energy for heat generation, mobility, power supply and industry cannot be secured in any other way. It is therefore of essential importance for the provision of public services and the daily lives of our citizens.”

Nonetheless, news of the embargo sent oil prices—already at their highest point in more than a decade—spiking, previewing a rise in oil prices that a high-ranking Russian official said earlier in the week could reach dizzying heights.

Biden said in his remarks that while the embargo would raise gas prices for Americans, he would attempt to reduce prices by releasing tens of millions of barrels from the country’s strategic oil reserves, and pushed back on allegations that his energy policy had contributed to the price increases as “simply not true.”

It’s unclear, however, whether those measures will work—and the Russian government is counting on their failure.

“It is absolutely clear that a rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Russian state television on Monday. “The surge in prices would be unpredictable. It would be $300 per barrel if not more.”