Montana GOP Sen. Steve Daines said Russian President Vladimir Putin has the European Union “over a barrel” as it scrambles to secure reliable energy alternatives, warning Tuesday that the crisis should serve as a “wake-up call” for the United States as it seeks to build out its own domestic production.
“The bottom line is this: Energy security equals national security,” Daines said in an interview with the Washington Examiner, adding that the EU is “starting to wake up” in terms of what the bloc must do in order to reduce its dependence on Russia.
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Europe, Daines added, “[needs] to pivot to America and other more friendly sources for oil, natural gas, and coal.”
His comments come as EU leaders prepare to meet Wednesday to discuss their sixth round of sanctions against Russia. Earlier this month, leaders appeared to be warming to the possibility of including in that raft a possible embargo of Russian oil, though opposition from Germany and Hungary, two member nations that are deeply dependent on Russian supplies, appear to have stalled that effort in the short term.
“Vladimir Putin is weaponizing energy,” Daines said. “I think this is still not talked about enough in terms of what’s happened to Europe as they have been increasing their dependencies on Russian oil and gas and coal,” he added.
Daines’s comments were prescient. Hours later, Russia announced it planned to cut Poland and Bulgaria off from its supply beginning tomorrow, Bloomberg News reported, an event that only exacerbates the need for the EU to secure reliable, alternative supplies as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Russian-owned gas giant Gazprom also informed Poland’s PGNiG that gas supplies along the Yamal pipeline will be stopped, according to a statement from the Polish energy company, and the Bulgarian Energy Ministry has also been informed that gas shipments will be suspended Wednesday, as reported by the BBC.
“The Europeans have learned a very, very painful lesson,” Daines said. But he said it also serves as a powerful wake-up call for the Biden administration, which he warned must act immediately to avoid a similar fate.
“The United States needs to continue to aggressively increase its energy production. I say energy — it’s oil, it’s natural gas, and it’s coal — to be the source of energy for the world instead of Russia being the source of energy, particularly for Europe,” the senator said.
“Americans are feeling the pain at the pump as well as their monthly utility bills. That will only get worse,” Daines said. “We’ve got to change direction, and the Biden administration, frankly, is complicit in this in terms of the judges they place on the bench, the regulators they place on agencies like [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission], because they are anti-made in America fossil fuels.”
The EU is hoping it can reduce demand for Russian gas by two-thirds this year by diversifying gas supplies, while the recent Versailles Declaration, agreed to by member states last month, committed them to “[phasing] out our dependency on Russian gas, oil, and coal imports as soon as possible.”
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Daines and Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz were the first two U.S. lawmakers to travel to Ukraine since Russia invaded Feb. 24, and since their return, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have visited Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
