Several media sources are reporting that Joe Biden will announce a ban on the import of Russian oil this morning, after several days of intense pressure from members of both political parties.
Biden was reluctant to take the step for a couple of reasons. First, there is little doubt that cutting off about 3% of U.S. oil will cause the price of a gallon of gas at the pump to jump significantly. This alone will lead to higher inflation.
But worse for Biden politically is that it will lay bare the president’s remarkable shortsightedness in doing everything possible to cut domestic oil production. The administration has spent much of the last year placing limits on oil drilling, closing pipelines, and blaming oil companies for the inflation caused by his wild and reckless spending policies.
The administration has been sending representatives all over the world to oil-producing countries begging for more oil. The effort has met with mixed results, so the supply shortages will be severe.
New York Times:
Officials said Mr. Biden had struggled for days about whether the take the step amid concerns about whether it would accelerate the already rapid rise in the price of gasoline at the pumps — a potent political issue for Americans in a critical election year.
Already, concern about disruptions in the flow of oil around the world has pushed up the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil. On Tuesday morning, Brent crude hit $130 a barrel. It has been as high as $139 a barrel, up 26 percent over the past week.
And on Monday, anticipation of a ban on oil by the United States shook financial markets. The S&P 500 fell 3 percent, its sharpest daily decline since October 2020. The Nasdaq composite dropped 3.6 percent and is now 20 percent off its November record.
Biden was forced to act because Congress was fast-tracking legislation that would ban the import of Russian oil and suspend normal trade relations. With the Democratic leadership pushing for the ban as hard as Republicans, Biden had no choice but to swallow the political hemlock and pull the trigger on oil sanctions.
It’s not very likely that Europe will follow suit, however.
But it is unlikely that Mr. Biden will be joined by the leaders of European countries, officials said. Europe gets about 30 percent of its oil from Russia, and leaders there have been wary of taking a step that would cut off that supply.
The president met virtually with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany on Monday morning to discuss the issue.
Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, and Olaf Scholz are not going to do Joe Biden any favors. In order for the U.S. ban to be meaningful and impact Vladimir Putin’s war effort, the other industrial powers who import Russian oil would have to join us. Rather than an inconvenience, stopping imports of Russian oil would lead to the economic ruin of the UK, France, and Germany.
Biden’s stupidity in destroying U.S. energy independence just to please European and American greens will eventually come back to haunt him. It will certainly be an issue in the midterm elections and perhaps into the 2024 presidential contest.
Source: PJ Media
