Oil-Backed Republicans Blame Biden’s Energy Policies For Russian Invasion

LOADING ERROR LOADING Republicans, including some of the biggest recipients of fossil fuel campaign donations, are blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on President Joe Biden’s energy policies, citing the crisis to justify more oil and gas drilling at home. In an interview Thursday with right-wing news outlet Newsmax, Sen. Marsha Blackburn said Putin and other world leaders have “watched Joe Biden as he’s made decisions like stopping the Keystone, ending drilling on federal lands — things that really hindered the U.S.” “Vladimir Putin said, ‘Joe Biden is weak. Putting aside that the senator’s comments sound like someone with a direct line to the war-hungry Russian president, there is nothing to indicate that Biden’s energy agenda — specifically, revoking a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline or pausing new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters — motivated Putin to attack Ukraine. “It’s all connected,” she said, “and President Joe Biden is undermining it all with his radical agenda to shut down American energy and embolden our enemies like Russia.” In a series of Tweets, Sen. Steve Daines argued that Putin was “empowered and emboldened by Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and his approval of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline while killing America’s Keystone XL pipeline.” The White House maintains that Biden has always opposed Nord Stream 2, an $11 billion pipeline that runs between Russia and Germany but is not yet operational. “There’s also plenty of oil leases that are not being tapped into by oil companies, so you should talk to them about that and why.” Biden has acknowledged that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could impact the U.S. economy and stressed that U.S. fossil fuel producers “should not ― should not ― exploit this moment to heighten their prices to raise profits.” “I know this is hard and that Americans are already hurting,” Biden said during a Thursday press conference.