BREAKING: Biden’s Plan For Russian Oil Is Too Little, Too Late

Two weeks into the active Russian invasion of Ukraine which Joe Biden has said he opposes, the U.S. has finally announced it will stop importing Russian oil and gasoline. After relatively meaningless sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs, Biden has taken the first steps – now two weeks after the actual invasion – of trying to curb Russian aggression. 

Critics (like me) would say that Biden should have sanctioned banks supporting the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline back in Summer of 2021 and should have weaned the United States off Russian oil at least in late fall 2021 to try and encourage global pressure before the invasion. But here we are. 

Now the United States, already suffering some of the worst inflation in history, having reached gas prices at the highest ever recorded will be bearing even higher gas prices with the pinch trying to replace the Russian supply while the rest of the world also tries to find alternatives. 

The left is being predictably glib, positing that the EU is unlikely to join the U.S. in banning Russian oil imports because of the extremity of their reliance but they fail to contemplate a reality where Putin decides to cut off oil supply which would create a major and sudden onset energy crisis. Had NATO been an effective organization and the United States had a leader with any instincts or forethought perhaps we could have increased U.S. oil export, worked with our global partners like Mexico and Canada to do the same, and weaned the EU off their Russian supply months ago, more slowly, to avoid what will almost certainly be an international economic disaster. 

The average price of gas in the U.S. has reached $4.17 and in hardest hit areas is as high as $7 a gallon. It won’t be long before hardest-hit areas will reach $10 and the averages hover around $6. Mobility of any kind will become for the elite. And before you think electric is the answer like Joe Biden apparently, the supply of electricity is about to get pinched as well as those who can switch everything they are able over to electric power. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Electric vehicles are expensive now but they’re going to get a lot more expensive if everyone wants one. By the way, materials to make batteries for electric cars (and cars in general) come from Russia. 

Good luck out there in Joe Biden’s America.