U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) renewed criticism of President Joe Biden Monday evening in a statement calling for the Biden administration to put its oil money where it's anti-Putin mouth is and stop paying Russia for oil supplies to meet Americans' demand.
"The entire world is watching as Vladimir Putin uses energy as a weapon in an attempt to extort and coerce our European allies," Manchin noted. "While Americans decry what is happening in Ukraine, the United States continues to allow the import of more than half a million barrels per day of crude oil and other petroleum products from Russia during this time of war. This makes no sense at all and represents a clear and present danger to our nation's energy security," he added of the Biden administration's policy toward domestic production.
"The United States can and must ramp up domestic energy production and increase access to our abundant resources and technologies to both protect our energy independence and support our allies around the globe," Manchin said, hammering the point home.
Senator Manchin is, as with several other issues on which he's been vocal, right to criticize the Biden administration for its energy policy. The United States absolutely can build and maintain energy independence — we were during the Trump administration. When the U.S. is energy independent, it also helps our allies who come under threat from tyrants around the globe who otherwise have a monopoly on energy for our NATO and other international partners. But by caving to radical climate alarmists and indulging their alternative energy projects, the Biden administration has made the U.S. subject to the whims of tyrants like Putin and put America's allies in danger of the same.
"If there was ever a time to be energy independent, it is now," Manchin's statement continued. "I am calling on the Administration and industry partners to take action immediately, up to and including banning crude oil imports from Russia. To continue to ask other countries to do what we can do for ourselves in a cleaner way is hypocritical," Manchin added of the Biden administration policies. "To continue to rely on Russian energy as they attack Ukraine is senseless."
"In the coming days and weeks, the strategic value of American energy and what can be done to better position our nation on the global stage will be an ongoing topic in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee," Manchin pledged.