Sec. 2. Findings

720 words·~3 min read·/bill/117/s/3754/is/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress makes the following findings: In February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a large scale invasion of Ukraine that violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In 2021, the Russian Federation became the second-largest exporter of crude oil and petroleum products to the United States, after Canada. In 2020, 7 percent of all petroleum imports to the United States came from the Russian Federation, which is more than was imported from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The United States private sector imported 848,000 barrels of oil from the Russian Federation per day in June 2021. From January through December 2021, the United States imported 245,194,000 barrels of oil from the Russian Federation, which at an annual average of $71 per barrel equals approximately $17,400,000,000 in oil imports. As of February 2022, oil prices have risen to $92 per barrel. According to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, 36 percent of all revenue of the Government of the Russian Federation came from the oil and gas sector in 2021.

In 2019 and 2020, the overall percentage of revenue of that Government that came from the oil and gas sector reached 39 and 28 percent, respectively. The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, relies on a network of government officials, heads of state-owned enterprises, and business leaders to maintain his grasp on power. Russian-owned energy entities that have ties to individuals aligned with Putin see benefits from reliance by the United States on imports of crude oil and petroleum products from the Russian Federation.

In early 2021, political prisoner Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation outlined some of the corrupt linkages between Russian oil giant Rosneft, with key Putin ally Igor Sechin as its head, and Vladimir Putin himself. The United States Government has already taken action against individuals with links to the energy sector of the Russian Federation, such as Igor Sechin, Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, Kirill Shamalov, Viktor Vekselberg, and Sergey Frusenko, under— the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114–328 ; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note);

Executive Orders 13661 and 13662 ( 50 U.S.C. 1701 note; relating to blocking property of additional persons contributing to the situation in Ukraine), codified by section 222 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act ( 22 U.S.C. 9522 ); and Executive Order 13582 ( 50 U.S.C. 1701 note; relating to blocking property of the Government of Syria and prohibiting certain transactions with respect to Syria). While sanctions imposed by the United States in response to the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine have largely exempted the energy sector, on February 24, 2022, the United States Government announced action against the following 2 additional individuals with links to that sector:

Ivan Sechin, son of Igor Sechin, and reportedly a deputy head of a department at Rosneft. Andrey Patrushev, a leader of Gazprom Neft, and son of Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council. Despite ongoing United States imports of crude oil and petroleum products from the Russian Federation and existing laws and policies against supporting human rights abuses, there has been no United States Government-led analysis of the linkages between the energy sector of the Russian Federation and corruption or human rights abuses.

Oil imported from the Russian Federation contributes to the overall United States carbon footprint, which makes up nearly 15 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. On January 27, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden issued Executive Order 14008 (86 Fed. Reg. 7619; relating to tackling the climate crisis at home and abroad), which identifies climate change as an essential element of the foreign policy and national security strategy of the United States. The Department of Defense cites climate change as a national security threat, noting that 100 percent of geographic combatant commands were affected by climate-related impacts in 2019, and more than 1,700 military installations continue to be threatened by sea-level rise.

Extreme weather events have caused more than $796,100,000,000 in damage in the United States during the 5 years before the date of the enactment of this Act alone. President Biden has set an economy-wide target for the United States to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, which will require decarbonization in the energy, buildings, and transportation sectors.

Connectionstraces to 6

Traces to 6 documents

public-private-law