Don't expect too much on Biden’s oil ban to Russia in fighting climate change
Will Biden’s ban on importing Russian oil and gas to the United States benefit the effort in fighting climate change? Probably not very much. Because the U.S. is oil and gas sufficient. It does not import much crude oil and other petroleum products from Russia.
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that the U.S. imported 245,194 thousand barrels of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia in 2021. (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTIM_NUS-NRS_1&f=M)
In December, 2021, the U.S. oil production is 11,567 thousand barrels per day. That means, the oil imported from Russia in 2021 is only about 21 days of domestically produced oil. Then how about the left 344 days in the year?
With a rough estimate of 9,352,000 barrels per day of oil production in 2022, the United States has been a top oil-producing country for years upon years. The US is also one of the greatest consumers of oil worldwide.
Domestic oil producers may be happy with the ban on Russian oil import. The Biden administration warned the oil and gas companies that it’s no excuse to exercise excessive price increases or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation. But we have seen the gasoline price hike these days.
We cannot expect too much from the oil import ban, issued by a net export country, to help fighting climate change. ###