The Political Insider

Even as Russia continues to wage war on Ukraine, the U.S. continues to import oil from Russia.

One Republican congressman sees a problem with that, saying that each barrel America imports from Russia has “Ukrainian blood on it.”

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Rep. Rogers: ‘Every barrel we buy, it’s got Ukrainian blood on it’

Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers slammed current U.S. import practices given the tension over Ukraine during a recent interview on Mobile, Alabama radio FM Talk 106.5.

Rogers there were better more energy sources that the U.S. should consider.

“Russia — their economy is basically, they’re a gas station,” Rogers said. “That’s literally where almost half of their money comes from. They’re selling gas and oil to other countries. The fact is we’re still buying a lot of Russian oil here in the United States.”

“At a minimum, we should stop that because it’s got Ukrainian blood, every bit of it,” Rogers contended. “Every barrel we buy, it’s got Ukrainian blood on it.”

“There’s no reason for us to keep funding his illegal war,” Rogers continued. “Even Nancy Pelosi has come out to call for us to stop buying Russian oil. Biden ought to get the message pretty soon. The fact is, and this is true of all your listeners, our gas prices are going to go up because of what’s happening in Ukraine because of the disruptive nature it has had to the energy sector, period.”

Last week, a bipartisan group of legislators like by Joe Manchin offered a bill to stop Russian oil imports – which was promptly rejected by the Biden administration.

Rogers said America must become more oil independent.

“And when we stop buying Russian oil, it will go up even more,” he explained. “It is going to be painful, but we should not be giving money to Russia to kill Ukrainians in this illegal war. What we need to be doing is reopening drilling on federal lands, reopening the XL pipeline that Biden stopped when he agreed to open the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.”

He continued, “We’ve got a lot of resources in this country that we can dramatically increase our production of natural gas and oil and be self-sustaining.”

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U.S. Energy Independence

The Republican said this change would be a matter of President Joe Biden standing up to “climate change lobbyists.”

“But he’s got to be willing to have the strength to tell the environmental climate change lobbyists that we’ve got to do this because he’s the one that cut them all off when he took power, when he took the presidency, and now we’re paying a price for it,” Rogers said.

Rogers’ comments are similar to those of Rep. Jim Jordan, who argued last week that Biden is essentially being held hostage by the far-left of his party.

Even if Joe Biden wanted to do that, his party won’t let him,” Jordan said. “His party is controlled by the left.”

“The left actually wants to destroy the oil and gas industry,” Jordan contended.