President Joe Biden predicted that banning energy imports from Russia would deal a powerful blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. But he also warned that it would likely drive gas prices even higher in the United States, which he said should motivate the U.S. to accelerate the transition to clean energy. “If we do what we can, it will mean that no one has to worry about the price at the gas pump in the future,” he said. “That’ll mean tyrants like Putin won’t be able to use fossil fuels as weapons against other nations.” Politicians often talk about the need for the U.S. to be energy dependent but seldom define exactly what that means. If the definition is producing enough energy domestically so that Americans no longer have to buy it from the rest of the world, by some measures the U.S. has already crossed that threshold. Up to the early 1950s, the United States imported relatively small amounts of energy from foreign sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In the mid-‘50s, the U.S. began to import greater amounts of crude oil and petroleum products, such as gasoline and distillate fuels, to fill the gap between petroleum consumption and domestic production. But over time that trend reversed. In 2019 and 2020, the U.S. exported more primary energy (energy in its raw form) than it imported – the first time that had happened since 1952, the agency said. There are currently more than 9,100 leases the federal government has approved that oil companies have yet to drill on as well as another 4,600 that are pending review, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management. To read more, visit the link in our bio to read more. #biden #russia #putin #gas