President Biden has officially banned the importation of Russian oil and natural gas into the United States in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, confirming what national media anticipated going into Tuesday morning.
It’s possible that this decision could push nationwide fuel prices even higher. However, as the New York Times reports, the United States gets less than 10 percent of its energy resources from Russia. Instead, President Biden expects this will have a more major impact on the Russian economy.
“This means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable to U.S. ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to this war machine,” he said during his announcement.
This news comes as the national average gas price hit $4.173 per gallon on Tuesday, an all-time high that breaks the previous record from 2008. That number is even higher for diesel fuel as states like Pennsylvania and California are currently seeing averages of $5.138 and $5.834 per gallon, respectively.
“There will be cost as well here in the United States,” President Biden admitted. “I said I would level with the American people from the beginning, and when I first spoke to this, I said defending freedom is going to cost, it’s going to cost us as well in the United States. Republicans and Democrats understand that alike. Republicans and Democrats alike are clear we must do this.”
There was pressure from lawmakers in both major political parties to instate this ban.
Meanwhile, the United States continues its direct support of Ukraine as the Russian invasion reaches day 13.
“Shipments of defensive weapons are arriving in Ukraine every day from the United States, and we in the United States are the ones coordinating delivery of our allies and partners of similar weapon —from Germany to Finland to the Netherlands. We’re working that out. We’re also providing humanitarian support for the Ukrainian people,” President Biden added.
According to the latest data from the State Department, the U.S. has taken in nearly 700 refugees from Ukraine so far.
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