Russian troops hadn't yet begun their full-on assault on Ukraine when the American oil and gas industry came to their rescue.
The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful industry lobby group, wrote on the social media site that energy leadership is more important than ever. Protect our energy security.
The crux of the industry's argument is that if drilling is stopped in America, the world will be less dependent on oil and gas from Russia.
The industry wants the Biden administration to reverse steps it has taken to rein in the production of fossil fuels.
The lobby urged the administration to release permits for drilling on federal lands and to lease more tracts for offshore oil and development. The A.P.I. called on President Biden to speed up permits for energy infrastructure and roll back legal and regulatory uncertainty.
Kathy Hipple is a finance professor at Bard College and a research fellow at the Ohio River Valley Institute, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on oil. She said that the industry misses the point that we are overly dependent on fossil fuels.
Professor Hipple said that experts agree that nations need to stop approving new coal-fired power plants and new oil and gas fields to avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change. She said that that is not resilient.
The oil and gas industry talks about how reliable fossil fuels are when there is a big storm or a war. He said that you don't see huge price spikes in clean energy.
The oil and gas industry's demands began to be echoed by some Republican lawmakers.
It is now clear what is at stake when anti-American energy policies make us and Europe more dependent on Russian oil and natural gas. She said it was our most powerful weapon against Putin.
Mr. Biden's attempts to quell concerns, promising that his administration will do everything it can to secure energy independence and limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump, have fallen on deaf ears.
You need to do more. Dan Sullivan, a Republican senator from Alaska, said in a video response that you need to get your boot off the neck of American energy producers. He said that the administration should revive the project that would have carried oil from Canadian tar sands to Nebraska, as well as resume issuing drilling leases in the National Wildlife refuge.
The oil and gas lobby is less vocal about putting sanctions on Russia. Even though the United States and Western Europe have imposed other economic sanctions, the Biden administration has so far held back on measures that directly affect Russian energy companies.
Some of the industry's biggest drillers are involved in oil and gas projects in Russia.
Aseem Prakash, a political science professor and founding director of the Center for Environmental Politics at the University of Washington, said continued pressure from the climate community meant Mr. Biden was unlikely to backslide on major climate-related decisions.
There could be less aggressive measures in terms of oil. He said that their rhetoric would have to be toned down. In places like Pennsylvania, Democrats simply cannot afford to say that oil prices are not going to revive.
He said that these changes weren't just coming as a result of the Ukraine crisis. The rising gas prices had begun to change the picture.
Climate could also get completely shoved off the agenda, including hopes of passing an ambitious climate spending bill. Professor Prakash said that the climate problems aren't going away.
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