03.05.22

Durbin To Join Manchin, Murkowski Bipartisan Bill To Ban Russian Energy Imports

SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Co-Chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, today announced that he will cosponsor the bipartisan Ban Russian Energy Imports Act, which was introduced earlier this week by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  The legislation would prohibit the importation of Russian crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and coal.

 

According to Reuters, the United States imported more than 20.4 million barrels of crude and refined products a month on average in 2021 from Russia, about eight percent of U.S. liquid fuel imports.

 

“The United States cannot continue to purchase millions of barrels of oil while Putin wages an unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine,” said Durbin.  “The Ban Russian Energy Imports Act would declare a national emergency with respect to Russian aggression and immediately prohibit the import of Russian energy products.  This bipartisan bill shows the U.S. Senate’s commitment to stand behind the brave Ukrainian people.”

 

The bipartisan Ban Russian Energy Imports Act would:

 

  • Declare a national emergency specifically with respect to the threat to our national security, foreign policy, and economy that exists as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine and directs the President to prohibit imports of crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, LNG, and coal from Russia.
  • The President has had the authority to take these actions since 1917; this legislation does not grant additional authority. This approach is modeled on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. 
  • The ban would be in place during the national emergency and either the President or Congress would be able to terminate the emergency and the import ban.
  • The bill exempts product that is already loaded or in transit at the time of enactment.

 

Learn more about the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act here.

 

Read the full text of the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act here.

 

Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-1) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-5) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

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