Hawley pushing measure to 'shut down Russian energy,' says Biden enabled Putin

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Sen. Josh Hawley discusses next steps in the Ukraine crisis

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) speaks with Fox News Digital at CPAC about the Ukraine crisis and a bill he is introducing to deal with the unfolding invasion.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is rolling out a measure next week that would "shut down Russian energy production" and lift regulations on the U.S. energy sector imposed by the Biden administration, while saying Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine is a "consequence" of President Biden’s policies.

During an interview with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Hawley, R-Mo., detailed legislation he plans to introduce Monday that would address what he called Biden’s "major strategic error."

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"The basic idea, we need to shut down Russian energy production. We need to open up our own," Hawley said. "Joe Biden has made a major strategic error. He’s done the exact opposite—he came into office, lifted sanctions on the Russian energy pipeline that just stuffed dollars in Putin’s pocket. And he shut down ours."

Presidents Biden and Putin. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images |   Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

Hawley said the bill would lift the various regulations and "stop measures" that Biden imposed on American energy production upon taking office.

"He canceled pipelines, he stopped oil and gas leases, he imposed new regulations," Hawley said. "The effect of it has been to make us no longer energy independent, but, in fact, to make us energy-dependent now on nations like Russia." 

Hawley criticized Biden for "begging" the 14-nation OPEC to increase oil production into the global market.

"That was before this Ukrainian crisis. Who benefits from this? Vladimir Putin," Hawley said. "So now, it is time to show some resolve with Putin and to show him we’re not just going to allow him to have his energy sector."

Hawley, instead, proposed sanctioning Russia’s energy sector.

"And we should get ours back on its feet," Hawley said.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) (AP )

It is unclear whether Hawley’s bill will garner any Democratic support in the Senate.

"This is going to be a real test for them," Hawley said, recalling Democrats’ voting against sanctioning Russia’s Nord Stream 2 Pipeline.

"They have been willing to give him the pipeline, to give him the energy, which is the dollars that he needs in order to carry out these acts of aggression," Hawley said.

"We should sanction their energy sector down to its knees, and we should open up ours — that, I think, is a great strategic opportunity, the right thing to do for our economy, and I’m going to propose legislation to do it," he said.

Meanwhile, Hawley said "no one has done more to enable Putin than Joe Biden," criticizing Biden’s move to lift sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and "refusing" to arm Ukraine.

"What dictators like Vladimir Putin got from that was America is willing to be dependent on foreign nations for its energy, America is willing to give up our energy dominance in the world," Hawley said. "Huge mistake, huge mistake."

He added: "What we’re seeing in Ukraine is a consequence of that, in part."

Biden, on Thursday, announced additional sanctions against Russia over its multi-front war on Ukraine, but stopped short of sanctioning Putin himself, and he did not announce a ban on Russia from the SWIFT banking system, saying Europe is not on board with such a move.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking to the media during a joint news conference with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban following their talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Putin says the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia's top security demands. In his first comments on the standoff with the West over Ukraine in more than a month, Putin said Tuesday that the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATO's response to the Russian security demands received last week. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool)

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But Hawley said the sanctions did not go far enough, and criticized Biden for enabling America’s energy dependence on Russia from "day one" of his presidency.

"Our policy should be help the Ukrainians defend themselves, we should help arm them, we should get our energy sector producing again, and we ought to shut down the Russians," Hawley said. "That’s what we need to do. That would be a strong response."

Biden, on Thursday, said the sanctions, in coordination with a coalition of other nations, would target more major Russian banks, including VTB, Sberbank, Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank OJSC and Novikombank. The sanctions will make it harder for Russia to do business in dollars, Euros, pounds and yen, and there will be "new limitations" on what can be exported to Russia, he said.

The sanctions will also target Russia elites: Sergei Ivanov and his son Sergei, Andrey Patrushev and his son Nikolai, Igor Sechin and his son Ivan, Andrey Puchkov, Yuriy Solviev and two real estate companies he owns, Galina Ulyutina and Alexander Vedyakhin, the U.S. said.

The sanctions will also limit the borrowing opportunities for 13 Russian entities and enterprises, according to the U.S.: Sberbank, AlfaBank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Transneft, Rostelecom, RusHydro, Alrosa, Sovcomflot, and Russian Railways.

Hawley said Biden’s latest sanctions "don’t really hit the energy sector in Russia," and demanded that he "get tough at some point and actually show Putin what American strength looks like."

But what Hawley says he is "opposed to" is "sending more American troops to Europe."

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"I think that’s a mistake— I think that’s a strategic mistake," Hawley said.

Biden, on Thursday, announced the deployment of 7,000 more U.S. service members to Germany, but maintained that U.S. military will not fight in Ukraine.

"We need to be focusing our military power in Asia on China but we can walk and chew gum and we’ve got to show strength in Europe," Hawley said.

"This is a dangerous time because China, of course, wants to gobble up Taiwan, they have their own imperial ambitions in Asia," he said, adding that China is "the immediate" and "most pressing threat" to U.S. national security and prosperity.

"We have got to focus on that," Hawley said. "We cannot get distracted by what Putin is trying to do—we’ve got to counter what he’s trying to do, but we have got to maintain our number one focus on China, and that is why I am opposed to sending more troops to Europe." 

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Hawley added that the U.S. needs to "use other tools, sanctions and arming the Ukrainians."

"We’ve got to focus our military on China," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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