Officials from the Biden administration pressured some Democratic senators not to back a ban on the import of Russian oil and gas, Axios reported, citing unnamed Senate Democratic aides.
The suggestion to ban the import of Russian oil and gas came from US Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The bipartisan proposal would prohibit the import of Russian fossil fuels, including crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal. As of now, legislation supporting the ban has 20 people supporting it - among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
While the Biden administration is considering a ban on Russian oil and gas, the White House has been reluctant to impose it, citing the possibility of energy prices skyrocketing and impacting Western customers.
According to Axios, the response by the White House to the ban was similar to earlier calls to boot Russian banks out of the global SWIFT banking network - a decision that the Biden administration has taken.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported that Biden officials were in talks with the representatives from oil and gas industries, discussing the effects of a Russian imports ban on American customers.
Among those calling for ending imports of Russian oil and gas is Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who on Friday said that "we need to increase oil & gas output immediately" as "extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures."
Axios' Andrew Freedman noted that, even without a ban on Russian oil and gas, US gas prices are already running as high as they were in 2014, hit by inflation and a reported supply chain crisis.