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Andrew Harnik/AP
The hunt for oil to replace banned Russian imports is forcing Washington into some difficult choices. But in one case, it might also lead to a happier outcome.
When President Joe Biden announced a U.S. ban on Russian oil and other energy imports last week, he called the sanction a “powerful blow to Putin’s war machine” currently invading Ukraine.
But the move means Washington must find alternative sources of crude elsewhere, and its search for new supplies, from Venezuela to Iran to Saudi Arabia, underscores the challenge of feeding the oil-dependent U.S. economy while preserving President Biden’s values-based foreign policy.
“There is an energy crisis in the world. If you want to focus on values, you have to pay more,” says Umud Shokri, a Washington-based energy security adviser and expert in energy diplomacy.
That blunt fact, combined with the West’s need for oil, is leading U.S. diplomacy in novel directions.