Lankford: We Need to Stop Buying Russian Oil

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on YouTube.

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on Rumble.

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today along with his Republican colleagues expressed support for Ukraine and called on the US to cut off the purchase of Russian oil and gas. In the last day, Lankford has sent two letters to the President asking him to restore America’s energy dominance and to change course on the failing energy policies that are emboldening Putin.

Transcript

Once again I want to be able to call out for folks to be able to pray for the people of Ukraine. Many of us have been engaged and been in conversation with individuals that we know in Ukraine. Just a few years ago the Oklahoma 45^th Infantry spent a full year in Ukraine training the Ukrainian military on how to be able to fight the Russians. That training is now being put into place.

The equipment, the weapons, the anti-tank, the anti-aircraft munitions that the United States has provided to them, they continue to be able to ask for more and more from Ukraine because they are sitting ducks and they’re fighting in the streets today while we sit in the safety of this room.

This is a very different day for the people in Ukraine. We should not fail to be able to pray for them and to look for every opportunity we can to be able to support them. I’m amazed at patriotic Americans all over the country that are displaying the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine, they’re wearing it on their lapel, they’re putting it out, they’re posting it on their Facebook and social media sites.

I’m amazed when I see all the stories that are out there of liquor stores that are pouring out their Russian vodka and putting up a sign to say that we no longer sell Russian vodka. At the same moment, I would really like to see President Biden put out a sign that says America no longer buys Russian oil. But he’s yet to be able to put that sign up. So currently, our liquor store operators are doing something the United States is apparently not willing to do through our President. 

We need to stop buying Russian oil and refined products. We need to be able to instruct every country in the world and to be able to put out a public list and to be able to make it clear countries in the world that are buying from Russia are sending cash that then is being used to murder the people in Ukraine. We need to knock it off. We should be able to engage in this.

Now what happens now? The Biden Administration has to be able to make a decision. Currently they’re dominated by an environmentalist perspective that somehow Saudi Arabia and Russia are producing energy cleaner than the United States, and they’re so consumed with the green footprint of the United States that they’re ignoring even their own numbers.

If you look at the Biden Administration numbers and you look at their numbers and say what will the worldwide oil and gas usage be in 2050, they continue to show increasing numbers. But at the same time they’re trying to decrease production in the United States by new requirements on FERC, on pipelines, new requirements on exports for natural gas, continue to be able to limit access to capital through the Federal Reserve through the nominees that are in place. They’re continuing to find ways to produce less in America, even though their own numbers show there will be a greater need in 2050 than what there is now.

What they’re really saying is we don’t want to produce that in America, we want Russia and OPEC to be able to produce it, even though it needs to be done and will be done. In a committee hearing yesterday, here in the United States Senate, one of my Democrat colleagues said what we need to do is tell the people in Europe that we will produce heat pumps for you and that we need to start producing more heat pumps here in America. Well I’m sure that really is very comforting to the people of Europe, that in the next 15-20 years we’ll produce enough heat pumps to ship to you while you’re cut off from oil and have no access to natural gas to heat your homes. I’m sure it’s incredibly comforting to the people of Ukraine who are in day 6 of fighting for their lives, that in the next 15-20 years we’ll produce some heat pumps and send them over to Europe.

This is not a rational response right now from the United States government. We need to be clear that we’re standing with the people of Ukraine, that we’re providing humanitarian aid to them, we’re providing military aid to them, and we’re doing what it takes to cut off the flow of money to the Russians who are murdering their neighbors.

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