03.03.22

Hoeven: Unleash U.S. Energy Potential to Replace Russian Oil & Gas, Cut Off Funds for its Invasion of Ukraine

WASHINGTON – At a press conference with his Senate Republican colleagues this week, Senator John Hoeven outlined the need to empower greater domestic energy production in the U.S. to displace imports of Russian oil and gas, helping to further isolate Russia from the global economy and cut the funding available for its invasion of Ukraine. Doing so would align with the following legislation that Hoeven recently helped introduce:

“North Dakota is a big oil and gas state, producing 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, but that’s down from 1.5 million barrels per day just a couple of years ago,” said Hoeven. “We’re importing more than 600,000 barrels of oil per day from Russia. Had the Biden administration not put restrictions on energy production in this country, we could replace most of those imports just using oil from North Dakota. We need to unleash the energy potential of our country and absolutely shut down Russia’s ability to sell oil and gas. 

“Another example is the Keystone XL Pipeline. In 2015, we passed my bill to approve the pipeline, S. 1, through the Senate and House but President Obama vetoed it. That pipeline would be operating today and bringing in oil from Canada, our strongest ally in the whole world. Do you know how much? 830,000 barrels of oil per day, when we’re importing 600,000 barrels per day from Russia.

“If we end these Biden restrictions on our ability to produce oil and gas, we would not only have those resources here for our consumers, helping to reduce inflation, but we could also provide it to Europe to reduce their dependence on Russia.

“We didn’t hear about any of this during the State of the Union. It’s time to get going. We need to do this now, not only for the benefit of our own economy and to cut down on inflation, but so Europe and the world can stand up against Russia and stop its naked aggression in Ukraine.” 

 

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