Suozzi: The U.S. doesn’t need Russian’s oil

Oil company giants Exxon, Mobil, BP, and Shell announced a week ago that they would pull their companies out of Russian ventures, in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Then Shell said on Tuesday it would stop buying Russia’s oil and gas. The same day President Joe Biden told the nation that the United States would ban imports of Russian oil, natural gas and coal. 

Prior to the president’s announcement, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, of Glen Cove, co-sponsored the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act, saying at a virtual news conference on Monday that he was working to build bipartisan support. A companion bill was in the Senate.   

“We have to stop buying oil from Russia,” Suozzi said. “It doesn’t make sense that we support a madman to fund murder of Ukrainians.” 

U.S. Russian oil makes up 7 percent of  U.S. imports. And it produces 10 percent of the world’s oil supplies. Suozzi said the U.S. doesn’t need Russian’s oil, adding that their economy should not be supported in any way. 

“We need to be energy independent and move toward a green economy,” he said. “The prices at the pump, gas and oil production are at record highs right now. The price increase is a supply chain issue.”

Regardless of the reason, the increase in the price of gas is being felt by motorists. “It’s hitting the community hard,” Megan Shedlick, of Glen Head, said. “My gas prices were already up before the war, but I assume they’re only going to get higher.”

James Ryan, from Patchogue, works in Oyster Bay. He said President Biden could and should help the situation. 

“I think it’s absurd that Biden is not allowing fracking and pipelines,” he said. “The U.S. generates a lot of fuel.”

In early February, Senators Mark Kelly, of Arizona, and Maggie Hassan, from New Hampshire, introduced the Gas Prices Relief Act. The legislation aims to lower gas prices, calling for the 18-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax to be suspended until next year amid rising prices, which Suozzi said he supports. 

An additional way to reduce prices at the tank is to release oil from our countries strategic reserves, Suozzi said. “We are going to get our European allies to release their reserves too,” he added. “Right now, we import 670,000 barrels from Russia a day on average. We gotta cut that off.”

Todd Wallace said he agrees. “I can support the idea of paying more for gas if it means helping Ukraine, for sure,” the Glen Head resident said. “But we need fuel to get around. We’ve been dependent on that for quite a while, and I don’t see that going away any time soon. The electric cars are coming in, but I don’t think they’re going to solve the problem.”

But what about the increase in gas prices at the pump, which skyrocketed in the past few weeks? According to gasbuddy.com, gas prices ranged in the North Shore from $3.90 a gallon in Glen Head, to $4.65 in Oyster Bay on Tuesday morning, even before Biden’s announcement. 

And although the U.S. imports a small percentage of its oil from Russia, there is concern among lawmakers that oil companies will use the ban of oil as a convenient reason to raise prices even further. 

Phil Settepani said he can remember when gas was $4. “It’s crazy. The problem is gas is milking the system,” the Oyster Bay resident said. “But war is the first issue.”

Will the ban hit Russia as hard as the U.S. hopes? European support is still needed and Germany has already ruled against it. 

“Will China step in and start picking up the slack and buy more oil and will other strategic adversaries start doing that? It’s possible,” Suozzi said. “We need to make it so the Russian businesses and the oligarchy and ultimately the Russian people are the ones that put pressure on Putin because we know he is influenced by the oligarchies and big business.”

Will Sheeline contributed to this story.