Johnson: Is Russia Actively Interfering in American Energy Policy?

Statement

For the past five years, the American public has heard quite a bit about "Russian collusion" and "Russian interference." Most of that had to do with the cooked-up allegations against President Trump. But, there is evidence that supports real Russian interference, only it involves our energy industry.

In 2018, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology published a report that revealed troubling evidence that Vladimir Putin's Russia, in an effort to weaken the United States, engaged in a number of actions assisting the environmental movement in the United States in its opposition to hydraulic fracturing, shale development, and building new pipeline capacity.

Today, I call on the chairman of the Energy & Commerce Committee, as well as several other committees, to take a fresh, bipartisan look at this.

This evidence of Russian interference in the debate around America's energy future follows the same playbook the Russians used in Europe which resulted in several of our NATO allies dependent on Russian energy. In fact, a 2018 report from the Center for European Studies, revealed that Russia spent upwards of $95 million supporting anti-fracking NGO's in Europe. Unsurprisingly, this was followed by ever increasing reliance on Russian energy to heat homes, generate electricity, and power essential industries.

Given that America is importing over 700,000 barrels of Russian oil and petroleum products a day, bankrolling Putin's war machine with tens of millions of dollars every day, Congress has a moral obligation to investigate whether Russia has been interfering in American oil & gas policy and markets not only from 2011-2017, but also in recent years, and in the present day.

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