(Headline USA) President Joe Biden announced a new sweeping package of sanctions against Russia this week in response to Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. However, he said the economic punishment will not apply to Russia’s energy industry, which drives the Russian economy.
“You know, in our sanctions package, we specifically designed [it] to allow energy payments to continue,” he said on Thursday.
Biden also has not committed to increasing the U.S.’s own oil production in order to flood the market with cheap energy.
“We are closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption,” Biden said.
“We have been coordinating with major oil producing and consuming countries toward our common interest to secure global energy supplies,” he said.
When pressed on why Russia’s energy industry was being left untouched, White House Deputy National Security advisor Daleep Singh admitted that Biden does not want to disrupt “the current flow of energy from Russia to the world.”
The sanctions are only meant to degrade Russia’s “long-term” energy capacity, not its “short-term” production, he added.
Targeting Russia’s energy industry would inevitably cause gas prices in the U.S., which are already the highest they’ve been in years, to increase. The White House is also reportedly concerned about how increased sanctions on Russia would affect inflation.
Critics have pointed out that Biden’s decision to cave to radical environmentalists and outsource much of the U.S.’s own energy production has tied his hands.
President Biden is protecting Russian energy. But he sanctions American energy.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) February 25, 2022
Joe Biden attacked US energy jobs the second he got into office.
— GOP (@GOP) February 25, 2022
I will introduce legislation on Monday when the Senate returns to session to lift Joe Biden’s shut down of the American energy sector and return American energy to full production. No more weakness
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) February 24, 2022
