West Virginia lawmakers are leading the charge in Washington, D.C., to stop our country’s financial support of Russia through our use of their fossil fuels. U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., have sponsored the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act.
U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., is working on similar legislation to be introduced in the House of Representatives.
Good. If anyone is qualified to reassure nervous lawmakers our country CAN stand without fossil fuels imported from Russia, it is the delegation from the Mountain State. Manchin and Capito were among those in a Zoom meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend, in which Zelenskyy said he agreed the U.S. should ban Russian fossil fuel imports.
Even Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agrees we should get this done, telling reporters Sunday the hoped-for bill in the House would “ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the United States, repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, and take the first step to deny Russia access to the World Trade Organization.”
It seems everyone is on board. The question now is how long it will take.
“This is something I believe that should be done. It should be done immediately,” Manchin said.
He, Capito and McKinley are right, and — provided no one decides to seize an opportunity for obstructionist political theater — the bills should pass and shut off the flow of U.S. money to Russia as quickly as the bureaucracy can make it happen.