On Tuesday, President Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports, now he must transition to renewable energy!
On Tuesday, President Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports. Our movement must make clear that this is not enough. Too many other countries are dependent on Russian oil and gas, giving Putin the political power and treasure he needs to continue violent militarism.
Greenpeace Germany activists demonstrate with and kayaks in front of the lock in the port of Bremen against oil imports from Russia, which help finance Putin’s war in Ukraine. © Marcus Meyer / Greenpeace
No dictator can monopolize the sun. No autocrat can control the wind.
President Biden’s action must be coupled with an emergency and unprecedented effort to deploy renewable energy and move the world off fossil fuels in order to cool the fires of war.
Too many countries are dependent on Russian oil. By using the Defense Production Act, President Biden could mandate the production of a massive wave of heat pumps (that can heat and cool homes and run on electricity) destined for European homes to replace Russian gas and oil for good. Executive action can also supercharge the transition from dirty energy here in the US to renewables and help us achieve a lasting end to all violence powered by fossil fuels.
There’s clear precedent for using the Defense Production Act.
Trump used it to produce ventilators, and President Biden has already used it twice during his term, first to increase the production of masks, and then later to produce 4,000 miles of fire hose to help during California’s latest wildfire season.
Putin’s invasion is one example of the many conflicts made possible by oil and gas across the world, but it’s far from the first. From multiple American-led wars in Iraq to the wars on Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities around the globe, the world’s reliance on oil has driven or allowed mass bloodshed and suffering.
There is no ethical oil to be found anywhere in the world. Oil money props up autocratic governments, dictators, militaries, and regimes with records of terrible human rights abuses around the world. Drilling more oil in pristine ecosystems like the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, or importing oil from the highly toxic Alberta tar sands only causes more destruction and more climate chaos. American oil production, even in places like California, exposes communities to toxic pollution from its extraction and refinement, and let’s not forget incredible damage from events like BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We need to be clear that this whack-a-mole approach to sourcing oil only prolongs and exacerbates the damage and furthers our reliance on oil.
What the world needs now is freedom from fossil fuels. We must fix this broken system.
Like I said, no dictator can monopolize the sun. No autocrat can control the wind. Countries like Germany have already recognized that reliance on renewables is far preferable to reliance on Putin’s oil and gas, and have accelerated their commitment to get to 100% renewable energy by 2035.1 The U.S. must follow suit.
Ending our reliance on fossil fuels is the only way to prevent wars powered by oil. It’s the only way to prevent propping up evil regimes. It’s the only way to stop oil companies from gouging us at the pump. It’s the only way to save the climate and have true energy independence. And it has to start now.
Tell President Biden to use executive action to move us off fossil fuels by using the Defense Production Act to help the U.S rapidly build out renewable energy systems that can replace oil and gas here, in Europe, and around the world.