RELEASE: House Passes Bipartisan Gottheimer-backed Legislation to Ban Russian Energy Imports

Push to pass Russian oil ban led by Reps. Gottheimer, Fitzpatrick

Hitting Putin where it hurts

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House passed bipartisan legislation this week backed by U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) to ban Russian oil imports to the United States, in retaliation for Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine.

This development comes following Gottheimer and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1) formally introducing the bipartisan Ban Russian Energy Imports Act in the House this week. The bill would ban the United States from importing Russian crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

The Problem Solvers Caucus, made up of 29 Democrats and 29 Republicans in the House, endorsed bipartisan legislation to ban Russian oil imports to the U.S.

“We can’t subsidize Putin’s war in Ukraine with American dollars. Thanks to our bipartisan push, the House has now passed bipartisan legislation banning the import of Russian oil to the U.S. The Russians are killing innocent civilians, violating cease fires in refugee corridors, and escalating their horrific war. We need to hit Putin where it hurts,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “This ban gives us the opportunity to stick it to Putin, work with our allies to stabilize the energy market across the world, safeguard our nation’s energy security, and boost America’s energy independence. I’m also glad the Administration recently announced it had reached an agreement with our allies to release 60 million barrels from global oil reserves and our Strategic Petroleum Reserve — to help get gas prices globally down. By taking an all-of-the-above approach to our domestic energy needs, we can help eliminate America’s reliance on oil from Russia, terrorist states, and other bad actor regimes — with the goal of becoming energy independent. America needs to stop funding bad regimes, including Putin’s Russia. It’s time to cut off ruthless dictators like Putin from American dollars.” 

This Administration has approved more oil and gas drilling permits on public lands per month than the last Administration did during its first three years. Also, existing wells in the U.S. have been coming back online for 18 straight weeks. Overall, the number of active rigs is up more than 60% since the Administration came to office. This should all help relieve global gas prices. Onshore alone, as of the start of 2022, the oil and gas industry had more than 9,000 unused approved permits to drill in the United States. 

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