Democrats in Congress are urging US oil refineries to stop importing oil from Russia in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on the Kremlin a week into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bobby Rush, the Democratic chair of the House Energy Subcommittee, and Jerry McNerney, another Democrat on the subcommittee, have written to the refiners’ industry group calling on its members to stop purchasing Russian crude oil and partly refined products.
In the letter to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, which the Financial Times has seen, the two lawmakers wrote: “Because any purchases of Russian barrels would now finance its war with Ukraine, continuing this activity has become unconscionable.”
Separately, Jack Reed, the Democratic chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, tweeted on Wednesday: “Russian oil imports should be stopped. Our domestic supply is sufficient.”
The US imported about 209,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Russia last year, or about 3 per cent of…