Russia-Ukraine war: US exploring options to ban Russian oil imports, says Nancy Pelosi

Stepping up its counter-attacks against Russia over its ongoing military activities in Ukraine, the United States may soon introduce a bill for banning oil and energy imports from the country. As stated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday, the US House of Representatives may draft a bill to ban all energy imports from Russia which would further terminate normal trade relations with Russia as well as with Belarus. 

In a letter to her colleagues in the House, she stated that the house is exploring options for isolating Russia as a part of which it may impose the ban on oil and energy imports. "The bill would ban the import of oil and energy products from Russia into the United States, repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, and take the first step to deny Russia access to the World Trade Organization", she said. Adding more to it, she also said that the House would empower the Executive branch to raise tariffs on Russian imports.

Furthermore, in the letter, she also noted that the Biden Administration has requested $10 billion emergency funding for extending humanitarian, military, and economic support for Ukraine and will further enact this as a part of its omnibus government funding legislation. 

Meanwhile, Pelosi's letter came just a few days after a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate last week to ban imports of Russian oil. 

A bipartisan bill to ban Russian oil

In a bid to impose a ban on Russian energy, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) along with former panel chair Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and 16 other senators introduced the legislation. The ban on Russia would include fossil fuel and energy imports including liquefied natural gas, crude oil, and coal. However, the bill does not affect the product already in transit or in critical minerals shipments. 

According to statistics of the International Energy Agency, the United States had imported around 670,000 barrels of oil per day from Russia in 2021. Notably, the bill by the United States will come in addition to other announcements by major oil industry companies which have already started imposing a limit to the exposure to Russian imports. 

Image: AP/Pixabay