The United States is effectively re-implementing Cold War era restrictions on Russian oil and gas imports, as well as ending trade relations with the Eurasian country. Facing bipartisan pressure, Biden has finally elected to halt all oil imports from Russia.

From Fox Business. President Biden on Tuesday announced a ban on all imports of Russian oil, gas and energy to the United States, targeting “the main artery” of Russia’s economy amid President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine….

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“Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump since Putin began his military buildup on Ukrainian borders,” Biden warned. “And with this action, it’s going to go up further. I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home and coordination with our partners.”

The president, speaking from the White House on Tuesday, said the ban has “strong bipartisan support in Congress and, I believe, the country….”

But not all of Europe will be on board with a similar ban because they lack domestic oil production, Biden said….

Russian oil exports account for about one-third of Europe’s oil imports, however, for the United States, Russian exports are just under 10% of U.S. overall imports….

Biden also said the U.S. and allies are “enforcing the most significant package of economic sanctions in history,” and said those sanctions are damaging Russia’s economy.

“It has caused the Russian economy to, quite frankly, crater,” Biden said, noting that the Russian ruble is down 50% since Putin announced his war on Feb. 24….

“We understand Putin’s war against the people of Ukraine is causing prices to rise—we get that,” Biden said, directed at “oil and gas companies and the finance firms that back them.”

“But it’s no excuse to exercise excessive price increases or padding profits or any kind of effort to exploit this situation or American consumers,” Biden said. “Russia’s aggression is costing us all, and it’s no time for profiting or price gouging….”

The president, though, went on to say that it is “simply not true” that his administration or his policies “are holding back domestic energy production….”

“We’re approaching record levels of oil and gas production in the United States and we’re on track to set a record of oil production next,” he said, adding that in the U.S. “90% of onshore oil production takes place on land that isn’t owned by the federal government.”

“And the remaining 10% that occurs on federal land, the oil and gas industry has millions of acres leased—they have 9,000 permits to drill,” he said. “Now, they could be drilling right now. Yesterday, last week, last year, they have 9,000 to drill onshore that are already approved….”

Biden added, though, that the crisis “should motivate” the United States to “accelerate the transition to clean energy.”