How the War in Ukraine Has Upended the Fight Against Climate Change

Last year, President Biden pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half of 2005 levels by the end of the decade. Of course, this didn’t make the fossil fuel industry happy. But the march toward cleaner energy appears inevitable, as natural gas takes the place of coal, and wind and solar energy production ramps up to replace all fossil fuels.

While climate change has long been a partisan issue — with Republicans defending polluters like coal and Democrats decrying them — there has been a sudden shift in the politics, environmental priorities, and, possibly, the future of our energy sources.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has upended the world’s oil and gas markets, abruptly changing the game.

Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer — after the United States and Saudi Arabia — and the largest exporter, according to the International Energy Agency. The war in Ukraine not only has potentially serious implications for international energy security, it may also badly impact our wallets.

While the Biden administration has not yet banned Russian oil imports, Congress is very much in favor of doing so. And, surprisingly, support for a ban is coming from both sides of the aisle. On Thursday, Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a bill in the Senate that would “prohibit the importation of crude oil, petroleum, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas, and coal from the Russian Federation.”

Manchin and Murkowski may represent the most other-side-leaning views of their respective parties, but even senators at the total opposite ends of the spectrum also support a ban, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“I’m all for that,” Pelosi said at a news conference. “Ban the oil coming from Russia.”

Yet a ban would mean that the United States would have to find alternative energy sources, fast. Russia supplies the country with 3 percent of its crude oil imports.

As a short-term fix, a few days ago, Biden announced that the United States and 30 other countries will release nearly 62 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves in order to offset skyrocketing global energy prices. In the United States, Democrats say they want clean energy to make up the longer-term shortfall. Republicans, however, are leveraging this moment to lobby for increased domestic oil production, which would be in direct opposition Biden’s stated goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

On Wednesday, all the Republican members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources sent a letter to the president urging him to reconsider his overall energy policy.

“Your administration’s focus on ending the production and use of traditional sources of American energy has contributed to soaring inflation,” the letter says. “It also has left the U.S. and our allies vulnerable to the malicious maneuverings of Vladimir Putin.”

Today, however, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the country has no “strategic interest” in banning Russian oil imports. Psaki emphasized the administration’s hope to keep fuel prices down.

“We are continuing to look at other options we could take right now to cut U.S. consumption of Russian energy,” Psaki said. “Reducing the supply out there would have an impact on prices.”

Countering that, according to The Washington Post, Sen. Murkowski said: “I get that Biden ran on [climate] in large degree.” But, she said, the war in Ukraine means that “we are in a different place.”

That we are. And the choices the administration and Congress make now will affect whether the country can uphold its climate pledges, or, ultimately, allow the future of the planet to take a backseat to consumer interests.