Biden administration set to ban imports of Russian oil and gas



The Biden administration plans to ban imports of oil and natural gas from Russia as soon as Tuesday.

Two people reportedly with knowledge of the matter told the Washington Post that President Joe Biden intends to punish Russia for invading Ukraine by implementing an import ban.

Biden is scheduled to speak Tuesday morning and announce “actions to continue to hold Russia accountable for its unprovoked and unjustified war on Ukraine.”

These new sanctions will ban imports of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas, and coal, Markets Insider reported.

The administration’s decision to ban these products came after lengthy discussions with European allies. However, at this time, those European nations are not joining the United States in banning Russian energy imports with the exception of the United Kingdom, per Politico.

Western nations have been particularly hesitant to stop importing oil from Russia since Russia provides them with a substantial amount of their energy. The European Union, for instance, gets around 40% of its natural gas from Russia. Russia accounts for roughly 12% of global oil production.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak warned that a Western ban on Russian oil would yield “catastrophic consequences” for the global market and cause oil prices to surge beyond $300 a barrel.

Oil prices were already reaching historic highs before the White House considered barring the import of Russian energy.

Last week, crude oil futures listed prices at more than $113 per barrel. This is the highest that oil has traded since 2011.

And for the first time since 2008, the average price of gas in the U.S. is over $4 a gallon. In some states, like California, gas is well over $5 a gallon.

Despite the skyrocketing costs of energy consumption, the Biden administration is adamantly opposed to increasing domestic oil production.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki argued that instead of increasing domestic production, the U.S. should pivot away from fossil fuels altogether.

“It’s a reminder that real energy security comes from reducing our dependence on fossil fuels," Psaki said. "Domestic production has not insulated us from the price volatility of fossil fuels or the whims of those who control them such as President Putin. Americans know that."

The Biden administration has even floated the possibility of buying oil from countries that are openly hostile to the United States, like Iran and Venezuela, instead of increasing domestic oil production.

Senior American officials are even meeting with representatives of the Maduro regime in Venezuela to discuss the possibility of purchasing oil from the Venezuelan reserves.

San Francisco — where feces, piles of garbage have been filling its once-storied streets — to buy designer trash can prototypes for up to $20,000 each



San Francisco faces a ton of big problems: A broken school board more interested in flying its left-wing flag than educating students, woke culture further infecting city politics, and brazen violence and other crimes committed in broad daylight.

And let's not forget a major health issue: Feces and garbage filling its once-fabled streets as homelessness and drugs run rampant.

Sure, the poop problem may not be quite as bad this year as in the past — after all, 13,856 reports of human or animal waste between Jan. 1 and July 12 is certainly less than the 16,547 reports of feces over the same period last year.

But perhaps a solution is at hand: the city's Department of Public Works wants to replace 3,000 green trash cans with bigger and better-looking ones, KPIX-TV reported – the station even used "designer" to describe their model names.

Image source: KPIX-TV video screenshot

And the price tag for the prototypes? They'll cost taxpayers about $20,000 per can, the station said.

What are the details?

Officials told KPIX that sleeker designed bins with sensors alerting crews when they're almost full will be more tamper-resistant, keep out rodents, and help to make sidewalks cleaner.

Image source: KPIX-TV video screenshot

But one city resident told the station the plan is "insane."

Matt Haney of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors agrees: "$20,000 a can is ridiculous," he told KPIX.

The station said the "costly cans even have designer names like the 'Salt and Pepper,' 'Slim Silhouette,' and the 'Soft Square,' which all feature roll-out liners or toters that can be mechanically lifted instead of manually taken out."

Image source: KPIX-TV video screenshot

Haney didn't seem impressed.

"Why are we still doing this rather than putting out a bunch of different cans that are already produced, that are much cheaper?' he asked KPIX.

More from the station:

The Department of Public Works installed 3,000 of the green cans in the 1990s. Even they admit the $20,000 price tag is expensive for a prototype but promise the cost will go down once it's mass-produced.

"I want us to be, frankly, the model for other cities," public works acting Director Alaric Degrafinried told KPIX. "Portland, New York, Sydney, wherever it is across the world, to take our cans or to try and model their cans after ours."

Image source: KPIX-TV video screenshot

The station said the plan is to test three models this fall then choose the final trash can possibly early next year and get a final cost. Public words told KPIX the final cost per can would be about $4,000 each once they're mass-produced.

But the current green trash cans cost just north of $1,200 each, the station said. However, another resident told KPIX that people using the current trash cans are the problem, noting that "they go looking for drugs. They go looking for things to recycle. In the neighborhood I live in, they bust them open, pull things out. Sometimes they get too full."

Public works wants to spend $537,000 from $840,000 on reserve for the project, most of which is due to the design cost of the new bins, KCBS-AM reported

San Francisco Mulls Installing Sidewalk Trash Receptacles Costing $20 K Eachyoutu.be