• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. energy>

As lawmakers unite in support of Ukraine, a disconnect looms over energy policies

Faye Shen Li Thijssen
June 07, 2022
Gas and oil prices

A driver unloads raw crude oil from his tanker to process into gas at Marathon Refinery in Salt Lake City.

George Frey/Getty Images

The ongoing war in Ukraine has contributed to rising gas and oil prices in the United States, with many Americans paying more than $5 per gallon at the pump. But with energy policy intertwined with national security and international relations – and political gamesmanship – there’s no simple way to bring down prices and fix the problems plaguing supply chains.

Federal leaders – Democrats and Republicans – have been heavily supportive of Ukraine, both financially and morally. But that same sense of unity and cooperation has not extended to the energy and inflation problems plaguing the United States.


Surging prices

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and American and European governments responded with unprecedented sanctions, even though the European Union gets a third of its oil supplies and a quarter of its natural gas from Russia. In March, President Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports to the United States.

A week after the invasion began, U.S. crude oil and gas prices began to spike, before leveling off and then surging again.

While inflation may also be a factor, “There is really no room for doubt that Russia’s war on Ukraine raised the retail price of a gallon of gasoline by at least a dollar in the U.S. (and much more in Europe),” wrote Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The U.S. response

David Ellis, senior vice president of policy, strategy and communications at the Energy Futures Initiative, explained that Biden is now using a three-pronged approach: maintaining unity within NATO, supporting the European Union’s transition away from Russian energy sources, and offering direct support to Ukraine.

“Given the circumstances there is not much more internationally that the Biden administration could have done,” he said, explaining that the issues go far beyond mere gas prices. “Energy security is national security and therefore international security.”

Concerns regarding Russia’s dominance over the European oil and gas markets have been at the forefront of international debates for years. The 2015 G7 Summit, held a year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, preemptively addressed the issue through reaffirmations of support for Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to reform its energy systems, reiterating that “energy should not be used as a means of political coercion or as a threat to security.”

According to Ellis, “what’s happening now with the European compact to ban Russian oil and gas is a delayed reaction to something that should have happened in 2014 when Russia took over Crimea.” Instead, members of the European Union continued to source oil and gas from Russia, even extending Russia’s dominance through the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was completed in 2021.

Now, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ellis says “There was a successful response but a delayed response to Russia’s aggression, and as a result people are feeling the pain here domestically. … [Although] there’s a lot of aggressive counteraction, it’s had a real impact on the cost of energy.”

Thus, the question remains of how to address consumers’ responses to increased prices on oil and gas products.

Incentivizing change

While politicians debate potential solutions, individuals do have some options to mitigate the effects of higher energy prices, according to Ellis: “The most important thing an American consumer can do is to ask [themselves] ‘What can I do to be more efficient in my consumer choices?’...Ultimately, reducing your own energy inefficiency will save you money in the long term.”

But the cost of switching to an electric vehicle or making other energy efficient choices and changes to one’s life may be prohibitive to those with lower incomes. This is why, Ellis explained, “there needs to be incentivized, unified, and sustainable policies to encourage people to make those choices.”

In the current political climate, where scoring political points outweighs policymaking, implementation of such incentives seems to be a long shot. However, Ellis said, “It’s important to note that there’s been bipartisan support for broadly defined energy innovation ... and there are great intentions about the energy transition.”

And the American public favors a shift away from fossil fuels.

But to get to a new energy policy, the nation will face some growing pains.

“Long range steps will be less contentious and shorter-range policy will continue to be contentious,” Ellis said. “It may be one step forward, one step back if you have administrations or houses of Congress change. Then you have short-term reversals in policy that will harm long-term goals.”

While a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with U.S. energy polices, we have yet to see any unity on the issue in Washington. One thing everyone should agree on, said Ellis, is “permanent understanding that energy security is national security and also economic security. Energy access for developing nations is growth.”

From Your Site Articles
  • A sound climate policy requires open minds on both sides - The ... ›
  • Ukraine crisis offers chance to rethinking energy positions - The ... ›
  • This rotation of the economic cycle feels different ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Commodities - Oil, Silver and Gold Prices - CNN Business ›
  • Crude Oil Prices Today | OilPrice.com ›
  • Exxon signals record quarterly profit from oil and gas prices | Reuters ›
  • Why can't the US stop soaring oil and gas prices? - BBC News ›
energy

Join an Upcoming Event

American Electoral Reform, Open Primaries, Independent Voter’s Rights

IndependentVoting.org
Jun 25, 2022 at 8:00 pm EDT
Read More

Talking About Frederick Douglass Together

Essential Partners
Jun 30, 2022 at 4:30 pm EDT
Read More

Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life

Mediators Beyond Borders International
Jul 06, 2022 at 10:00 am EDT
Read More

Unpacking Court Reform: How to Ensure a Strong Judiciary

R Street
Jul 12, 2022 at 12:00 pm EDT
Read More

My Body My Choice: An Ongoing Conversation

The Great Reset
Jul 12, 2022 at 6:00 pm CDT
Read More

National Debate: Guns

Braver Angels
Jul 21, 2022 at 8:00 pm EDT
Read More
View All Events

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Jeremy Garson

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Jay Paterno

Re-imagining Title IX: An opportunity to flex our civic muscles

Lisa Kay Solomon

'Independent state legislature theory' is unconstitutional

Daniel O. Jamison

How afraid are we?

Debilyn Molineaux

Politicians certifying election results is risky and unnecessary

Kevin Johnson
latest News

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Amanda Becker, The 19th
24 June

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Our Staff
24 June

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

David Meyers
23 June

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Our Staff
23 June

Podcast: Past, present, future

Our Staff
23 June

Video: America's vulnerable elections

Our Staff
22 June
Videos

Video: Memorial Day 2022

Our Staff

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Bridge Alliance intern Sachi Bajaj speaks at the June 12 Civvy Awards.

How a college freshman led the effort to honor titans of democracy reform

Leadership
abortion law historian Mary Ziegler

How the anti-abortion movement shaped campaign finance law and paved the way for Trump

Campaign Finance
Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Podcast: Journalist and political junkie Ken Rudin

Media
Abortion rights and anti-abortion protestors at the Supreme Court

Our poisonous age of absolutism

Big Picture
Virginia primary voter

A study in contrasts: Low-turnout runoffs vs. Alaska’s top-four, all-mail primary

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Video: Team Democracy Urges Citizens to Sign SAFE Pledge

Voting