In his election campaign speech in New Hampshire in the north-eastern US region of New England on Friday, President Donald Trump accused the Democrats of making the US government purchase fuel from Russia.
POTUS claimed that New England currently has “the highest energy costs” in the country because New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did not allow a pipeline to go across the tip of the state “so that oil and gas […] can come” to the region.
“And do you know where you buy energy from? Russia. Did you know that?” Trump said, referring to the many Russian ships with fuel that have allegedly been docked at New England ports due to the fact that Cuomo, a Democratic Party member, “won’t allow the pipeline”.
The remarks came after the New York governor’s administration in May rejected a permit for the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline to supply fracked natural gas to Long Island and New York City.
The local Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said that “the construction of the pipeline in the ecologically sensitive, historically contaminated, and recovering area—particularly near Raritan Bay—would have an unacceptable negative impact on water quality”.
In a separate development in May, data from maritime monitoring services indicated that seven oil tankers carrying up to six million barrels of Russian oil were on their way to the US. Russia remains the second-largest exporter of crude and its by-products to America after Canada.
Also in May, an earlier adopted OPEC+ agreement stipulating global oil production cuts entered force, a few weeks after US crude prices plunged below zero per barrel in a historic drop that also caused a collapse of the global oil market.