Source: United States Senator for Ohio Rob Portman
March 3, 2022 | Portman Difference
At a press conference this afternoon, Senator Portman, co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, joined a bipartisan group of Senators to discuss the introduction of the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act, which would which would prohibit the importation of Russian crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal. In 2021, the United States imported an average of 670,000 barrels of oil and petroleum products per day. He also discussed the latest developments regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and stressed the need for additional, tougher sanctions on the Russian government and economy. The U.S. has also imported Russian LNG and coal despite having some of the largest reserves domestically. This import strategy puts American national security at risk and supports Vladimir Putin’s ability to stay in power.
A transcript of his remarks can be found below and a video can be found here.
“So it’s night time in Ukraine, and we will again see horrific images on our TV screens of artillery fire, missiles being fired into cities like Kharkiv and Kyiv. They’re hitting apartment buildings, they’re hitting hospitals, they’re hitting daycare centers. Yesterday, they even damaged the Holocaust Memorial in Kyiv.
“This is indiscriminate shelling that is killing thousands of civilians. The numbers we have don’t tell the whole story because there are people who are under rubble who we can’t count. There are children, babies who were in NICU units that have had to leave the hospitals, who we haven’t counted. This is an atrocity and the United States of America has an opportunity here not just to lead the free world, but to help Ukraine more. And one way we can help the people of Ukraine more is to tighten the noose on the Putin economy. Oil and gas, fossil fuels is number one.
“John McCain’s famous saying, “This is a country of thugs, that runs a big gas station.” Without those oil and gas revenues, the Russian economy definitely craters. So between $50 and $70 million a day going to Russia, why does that make sense? So of course, I support this effort. And I thank Joe and Lisa and Fitz, the House members, Josh, who are with us with us today, because this is important that we’d be bipartisan, bicameral and actually get something done here. This is not just about talking. This is about a crisis. People are dying. I was in Ukraine for the last congressional delegation, Jeanne Shaheen and I led it. It was in January. The people we met with are now in bunkers, fearing for their lives. I’ve been to the line of contact. The soldiers I met are now under fire. Some of them are dead.
“These are the people who have turned to us. I was in Cleveland on Sunday night at a rally. A thousand people showed up in Cleveland, Ohio. Ukrainians, but also Latvians and Lithuanians and Poles and people from all over Eastern and Central Europe supporting this effort, knowing that they’ve been under the thumb of Russia before and the Soviet Union before, and they’re not going to put up with it. They’re going to fight. But instead of having them fight to the death, we need to help them be able to fight and survive and to be able to win. So I thank you guys for what you’re doing here. I’m strongly in support of it. We need to do much more.
“By the way, Russia has Most Favored Nation Trading Status with us. They’re in the World Trade Organization, so we give them a preferential trade status with the United States of America. That needs to end. And we need to ask every country around the world to also end that status. That would actually increase the tariff on oil, by the way, among other things. But it’s critical that we not just go on as if this is business as usual. Again tonight as these bombs are raining down on these cities and killing civilians we need, at the very least, to do everything we can to tighten that noose, to ensure that the people of Russia at some point say enough, nyet. We’re not going to do this. We’re not going to be killing our innocent neighbors and suffering these economic consequences. We’re going to do something about the corrupt government in Moscow.
“Thank you, guys, for doing this.”
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