House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she supports banning all Russian oil to the United States amid growing momentum in Congress to find additional ways to cut off revenue streams to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I’m all for that. Ban it,” Pelosi said Thursday at a press conference at the Capitol.
Bipartisan members of Congress have been pushing legislation to ban oil imports from Russia and Republicans, especially, have been calling for more domestic oil and gas production in the wake of Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.
“The United States of America, we are importing Russian energy,” Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Tuesday. “This needs to stop. We are funding Putin’s war machine.”
The most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that in December, the U.S. imported 405,000 barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia or almost 5% of all U.S. imports for the month. That’s down from about 800,000 barrels in August.
