Severe sanctions don’t include oil

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After Russia invaded Ukraine last week, the price of oil surged to $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014. Thanks to Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, get ready for $5 per gallon gasoline.

For over three months, President Biden told the world that Vladimir Putin would feel the wrath of America with “severe sanctions” should Russia invade Ukraine.

Those sanctions — which according to Biden are not immediate — do not include oil.

Did you know that America imports oil from Russia? Last year we imported a record 232 million barrels of oil from the Soviets. 

According to Politifact.com, the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that the U.S. imported 25.32 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia in May 2021. This set a new monthly record for Russian oil imports.

Currently, there are two dozen ships on the way to America with 12 million barrels of Russian crude oil.

According to Wikipedia, Russia is the world’s leading natural gas exporter and the second-largest oil exporter. The increase in oil prices just made Putin’s bank account expand exponentially.

Remember the good ole days when America was energy independent. In case you forgot, that was during the end of Donald Trump’s presidency. 

When Trump left office, we produced more oil than we were consuming. For the first time in 50 years, America had a four percent domestic oil and gas production surplus. 

Trump’s energy policy was one of his biggest successes.

Since Biden took office, that surplus changed to a four percent deficit. It all started when Biden entered the White House and declared war on American oil.

In addition to killing the Keystone Pipeline, Biden reversed almost all of Trump’s drilling policies within days of taking office.

This was done to appease the climate change activists in the Democrat party.

Interestingly, Biden’s war on oil did not slow down Americans’ demand for oil by a single barrel last year. It did nothing to save the environment. It hurt the environment.

Instead of producing all our oil — where we have higher environmental standards — we pay Saudi Arabia and despots like Putin to transport oil in massive ships across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to America.

When the Biden Administration was asked about our reliance on Russian oil, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “We need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general, and we need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others.”

According to Jared Gordon, an Aerospace Engineer, the average industrial wind turbine produces the equivalent energy of 7.4 barrels of oil per day or 2,700 barrels per year.

Assuming those numbers are correct, it would take an additional 86,000 new turbines to replace just the oil we imported from Russia last year. That doesn’t sound bad until you realize there are currently a little over 70,800 turbines operating in the U.S.

If the truth were told, Biden probably would stop buying oil from Russia, but that could cause hyperinflation and a recession in the U.S. if not the world. Biden would get the blame, and his approval numbers would drop more.

The problem with buying oil from a foreign country is that it gives them leverage and power to the seller.

Don’t get me wrong. Even if America were still energy independent, the war in Ukraine would cause the price of gas to rise. But we would not be paying a communist thug.

Putin now looks to join the ranks of Vladimir Lein, Chiang Kai-Shek, Adolf Hilter, Joseph Stalin and Mao as communist dictators known for murdering millions.

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As a nation, we can do more than pray for the Ukrainian people — which we should. Here are three charities recommended by Charity Navigator engaged in relief and recovery efforts in Ukraine: Save the Children, Project HOPE and Global Giving.