Rubio, Senate Republicans Introduce Bill Banning Energy Imports from Iran, Venezuela

With the Biden administration’s hesitancy to give the nod of approval for renewed American oil production, conservatives have called out the President for going to international energy in order to satiate the nation’s demands. Conservatives like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and other Republican lawmakers have just introduced a bill that would ban oil and natural gas from authoritarian regimes such as Iran and Venezuela.

The bill is known as the Preempting Misguided Appeasement and Financing of Destabilizing Regimes Act. Alongside Rubio, Senators such as Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Steve Daines (R-MT), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Hoeven (R-ND), Rick Scott (R-FL), and James Lankford (R-OK) introduced the bill.

“The United States is blessed to have a plentiful supply of oil and natural gas — we should be using it,” Rubio said. “American-produced energy is cleaner and provides good jobs for American workers, yet the Biden Administration would rather appease dictatorships in Iran and Venezuela in return for bad deals and false promises. Under no circumstance should we be funneling money into the hands of dictators and narco-terrorists who are also allies of Vladimir Putin. Enough is enough — it’s time to bring energy production back home.”

The United States sits on the largest natural reserves in the world. During the Trump presidency, the U.S. was completely energy independent. On day 1 of President Joe Biden’s (D) administration, the country became dependent on foreign oil.

While conservatives want to return to an era of independence in the energy sector, this bill isn’t focused on attacking the president for going to other nations for oil, but rather the nations the President has decided to import from.

Sen. Rick Scott spoke on the introduction of the bill as well.

“It is about time we strengthen our oil and natural gas sanctions against genocidal regimes like Iran and Venezuela, and I applaud the previous administration for leading the charge in this fight. It’s a no-brainer,” Scott said. “The current administration is turning to genocidal regimes, like Maduro in Venezuela and Iran, in an attempt to bring in more oil, when Biden should put America first and build up our own energy independence. The U.S. cannot depend on one murderous dictator over another, we must depend on ourselves.”

According to AAA, compared to a year ago, gas prices have gone up $1.04 per gallon nationwide. However, they have also gone down 63 cents per gallon in the past month.