A handful of Republican U.S. Senators, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma among them say the U.S. should not consider importing any crude oil from either Iran or Venezuela.
To make their point, they have introduced the Preempting Misguided Appeasement and Financing of Destabilizing Regimes Act. The bill would prohibit the importation of Iranian and Venezuelan crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas into the United States.
“Cutting off purchasing oil and gas from Russia is the right direction, but buying oil or gas from Iran and Venezuela is wrong,” Lankford said. “President Biden said we should promote made in America, but obviously he meant everything but US oil and gas production.”
Lankford says it makes no sense for the U.S. to shift its energy focus from Russia to Iran, the largest state-sponsor of terrorism and Maduro in Venezuela who hates the U.S. and murders his own people.
“This is nonsensical, especially when we have the energy resources we need right here in Oklahoma and the US. Gas prices are high because of Biden’s anti-energy policies, not just Russian aggression. We’re putting this legislation forward to say Biden can’t now beg Iran and Venezuela to try to solve the problems he created.”
Others who joined Lankford in the introduction of the bill were: Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) along with Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Steve Daines (R-MT), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Rick Scott (R-FL).
“The United States is blessed to have a plentiful supply of oil and natural gas — we should be using it,” Rubio said. “Under no circumstance should we be funneling money into the hands of dictators and narco-terrorists who are also allies of Vladimir Putin. Enough is enough — it’s time to bring energy production back home. ”
“We should not be reliant on brutal dictators to provide for our country’s energy needs. It’s national security suicide,” Sullivan said. “It is insulting to working families that the Biden administration would rather enrich the despots in Iran and Venezuela than incentivize hard-working Americans to produce more energy.”
“Banning Russian oil imports is important, but it’s not enough,” Daines said. “We need to increase American energy development and support our allies, not run to foreign dictators in Venezuela and adversaries like Iran.”
“The fact that Joe Biden is rumored to be negotiating with Venezuela for crude oil is so offensive,” Cramer said. “Even worse, he may be willing to give Iran, the world’s largest sponsor of terror, billions of dollars a day by removing sanctions for their oil.”
“Now that President Biden has finally come around to halting Russian oil imports, you would think his natural next step would be to unleash our domestic energy supply and follow through on his pledge to buy American,” said Sen. Marshall.
“Instead, the President is now reportedly looking to do business with terrorists and dictators in Iran and Venezuela to fill the void. This is simply unacceptable and will fail to provide short-term or long-term American energy security.”
