Washington – A bipartisan group of six U.S. senators on Sunday publicly called on President Trump’s administration to immediately stop a newly announced plan to import diesel from Russia. The senators, four Republicans and two Democrats, said the move contradicts existing sanctions law and risks providing a financial lifeline to President Vladimir Putin while Russia continues its war against Ukraine.
Senators’ statement and concerns
The statement, signed by Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Thom Tillis (North Carolina), John Curtis (Utah), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire) and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), criticized the administration for failing to consult Congress as required by statute. “The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians. The administration must immediately reverse course,” the senators wrote.
Sen. Tillis told NBC’s Meet the Press that the president’s actions appear to violate the law, noting, “We were very clear that Russia is the aggressor. Russia is the one who can end this war by backing out of territory that they occupied.”
Trump’s diesel deal
President Trump announced on social media Friday that he had reached an agreement with President Putin to have Russia supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to the U.S. and global markets immediately, followed by an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.” He said Russia would deliver a further 3 million tons “within a short period of time” after that.
The announcement came weeks after Congress passed legislation directing the president to impose substantial tariffs on the top importers of Russian oil and natural gas, with limited exceptions for countries that import less than 15 % of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports. The same congressional effort explicitly banned Russian energy imports in 2022 to prevent U.S. financing of the war.
Administration’s response
Sen. John Barrasso (R‑Wyoming) defended the president’s focus on lowering energy costs, saying, “The president is balancing and has to make tough decisions.” He added that the diesel imports could serve as “another point of leverage for the president to use against Putin in an effort to get a long‑term solution in that part of the world.”
Expert analysis
Energy experts cautioned that the proposed diesel volumes are modest compared with U.S. daily consumption and are unlikely to make a noticeable dent in pump prices. Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, noted that the total amount of diesel is less than what the United States uses in a single day. He suggested that Iran and Russia might benefit more than American consumers, stating, “The Iranians are probably very excited because it shows that there’s a lot of pressure still on the U.S. And the Russians are excited because it puts a big hole in the sanctions regime.”
Legal backdrop
Congressional language from 2022 makes clear that the United States should not import oil from Russia until Moscow ends its aggression against Ukraine and ceases threats against NATO allies. The senators’ letter reiterated that the president’s diesel plan “runs directly counter to that law.”
As the debate continues, the administration has not indicated whether it will modify the diesel import plan in response to the senators’ objections. The issue highlights the ongoing tension between efforts to curb fuel prices for American families and the imperative to uphold sanctions designed to pressure Russia to end its war.
Original reporting: Allentown News – 6abc Philadelphia — read the source article.
