and andy levin of michigan talk about russia's invasion of ukraine and offer their insight into the economy. brian o'toole on the various sanctions against russia. on the various sanctions against russia. ♪ ♪ host: it's "the washington journal," for march 8. congressional leaders announced a plan to pass legislation that would and russian oil imports to the united states as the biden administration reportedly looked at other ways to bring oil to the u.s. and concerns over domestic gas prices. the next half-hour, your calls about gas and oil price concerns. here is how you can call to let us know your thoughts this morning. democrats, (202) 748-8000.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text us, (202) 748-8003. post on our facebook page and @cspanwj is our twitter and instagram feed handle. "watch concerning russian oil. -- "the washington times," concerning russian oil -- host: some of the thinking on

oil and gas from congress when it comes to their twitter feeds, we cannot let polluters scare us into a domestic drilling free for all. it won't help the people of ukraine. according to reuters, 80% of americans support a ban on russian oil in words. the vast majority of americans do not want dollars to finance the awful war on ukraine and if the president doesn't act, congress will. i support banning russian oil imports to the united states. vladimir putin is betting that short-term gas prices will break the resolve and he's going to lose that bet. on her twitter feed, gas prices started skyrocketing long before putin invaded ukraine. the crisis began when the biden administration shut down

production and killed good jobs. unleash american energy. to the gas prices that you saw on the pump, reported on in the papers today, the national average as it currently stands, $4.06. nationwide, $5.34 in california. oregon, four dollars $.51. washington state, four dollars 40's -- four dollars 44 cents. it goes on from there. the lowest currently is in pennsylvania. if you want to talk about the gas and oil price portion of what's going on and the debate on capitol hill over the issues, you can call us, (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8001 four republicans.

independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text us, (202) 748-8003. here is the white house press secretary, jen psaki, responding about the white house messaging to americans on high gas prices. [video clip] >> what is the message from the white house to americans about high gas prices? >> the president is going to do everything he can to reduce the impact on the american people, including the price of gas at the tank. what is also true, because of the actions of president putin invading a sovereign country, it created instability in the markets. something the president talked about even before russia and president putin moved forward with their actions. the president has already taken steps. we will clearly continue to have

conversations with large oil producers and suppliers around the world about how to mitigate the impact and consider domestic options as well. >> on friday they talked about options that they could take right now. when is the decision on that going to be made? >> i don't have a addiction at this time but there is active discussion. host: this is ronald in illinois, starting us off on the democratic line. go ahead. caller: good morning, i'm 77, disabled vietnam veteran. i worked in an oil refinery for 25 years. people are being misguided in understanding the pipeline issues. specifically the keystone pipeline. the keystone pipeline from

canada that was supposed to go down to the gulf of mexico is sour crude. sour crude is crude that has a high amount of sulfur, sulfides and it. that pipeline, the keystone pipeline, was made, built, being built directly to ship sour crude down to the gulf to be loaded onto tankers to go to other countries who had more capability in getting the sulfur out of the crude oil. host: how does that affect what you are seeing today as far as gas prices in this debate over gas and oil issues with things going on in russia? how does that affect that? caller: what's happening is the

crude oil that comes from russia is sweet crude. our country, the refineries, the majority of them have, they have facilities in their refineries for sweet crude only. they are not set up to get the sulfides out of the crude oil like the ones in south america and europe and other areas of host: gotcha. -- of the world. host: gotcha. let's go to john. caller: looks to me like from the reports i have followed that we have two factions that are working. one, the factions presently in place. one is a contemplated sanction of the oil.

biden has not decided though it seems like from the two houses of congress there is a growing sentiment towards not buying oil from russia. whether it is crude, sweet, or sour. but what are we going to do? if we stop buying oil, we will still need oil. where are we going to get it? we will get it from other dictators, desperate's, and what have you. there has to be a better policy. host: ok. that is john and homer ville, georgia. if you sought on the pages, as far as their share of monthly imports to the united states of crude oil, petroleum products, most of that comes from canada on a monthly basis. mexico is a .4%.

russian supplies a little under 8%, with saudi arabia, colombia, ecuador, iraq, brazil, following that. this is deandre in miami, florida, independent line. caller: good morning, c-span. america. it's unfortunate, where we find ourselves today right now. but i think we seen this coming for a long time. in our rearview mirror. starting with unilateral sanctions in 2014. sanctioning entities and organizations, businesses that enable, you know, oil sales or oil businesses or whatever, with any country that we necessarily, you know, don't align with our global imperialist ambitions.

and now we are going to see where, you know, every country, facing u.s. sanctions, they still have to continue to do their business. they are not just going to stop. they find other alternatives. economic systems to where they are kind of not susceptible to sanctions to the point where it's going to backfire on our economy to like, you know, for example, we sanctioned iran over the last five or six years in their oil sales, trying to stop them from growing the state of hormuz. just regardless of sanctions they were doing things like rubies. now with this situation going on , you know, it's where we are going to, we are going to see

the short end of the stick. yeah, man. god bless america, the american people, and may the lord be with us all. host: cnbc reporting this morning that it was the shell oil company apologizing for the purchase of oil from russia and pledging to stop that on friday that they purchased 100,000 metric tons of crude from russia reportedly bought at a record discount with many firms shunning the oil during the on unprovoked invasion of ukraine. the company faced heavy criticism for the purchase including from the ukrainian foreign minister who has urged companies to cut off business ties with russia. this had been the focus of the tweet from senator bernie sanders saying that oil company revenues from last year, exxon was up, shel was up.

bp up 45%, can't allow big oil companies to continue to take advantage of the war in ukraine with inflation to make huge profits by jacking gas prices. we need a windfall tax. a comparison tweet this morning saying that according to aaa the u.s. gasoline averages hit $4.09 today, july 24 of 2008, reaching $4.32 per gallon. for context, when it happened the dow jones was 12,270 in 2008 and katy perry topped the charts according to aaa news, to give you the comparison. the topic of gasoline and oil in light of what's going on in russia, ukraine, louisiana, shirley, hello. >> good morning, c-span.

good morning, america. as a concerned citizen, i can't even stretch my budget. anything about opening the pipeline or the discussions going on like jen psaki, they don't know when or where or how long it is going to last. keeping the american people in chaos, confusion, and fighting. i am for opening the pipeline. please, america, wake up and listen to what's going on. as far as shell purchasing all the oil, there goes the energy. keep our energy. why would we want to fuel the war? who is going to go fight the war? they definitely cannot take the drug addicts. so, who are they going to take to fight a war that eventually we are going to get into? host: let's hear from willie in maryland. good morning.

caller: the whole thing seems like an illusion. people talking about the pipeline, i thought it was to export oil, not import oil. i know about combat and what goes on in politics, and it seems like they were playing politics to make extra money. i think we should just stay out of the war and not even fund them with weapons. that is what we did with syria and what happened to those weapons? we left weapons in afghanistan. as long as we keep giving people weapons and it gets into the wrong hands, the bad guy somewhere will end up with it and it will turn around and backfire. host: what you think about the conversation about higher gas prices and concerns over oil imports in the united states? caller: imports are very little,

it shouldn't be affecting the gas price other than people jacking up prices for profit. this happens every time there is a conflict. host: that is willie in maryland. if you go to the hill this morning, republicans talking about their own form of sanctions, talking about the economic reverberations, proposed ban on russian oil feeling angst amongst democratic lawmakers who are wrestling with what to do about rising prices that mushroomed into a problem for president biden. coalescing behind that proposal sponsored by joe manchin and lisa murkowski, to ban russian energy imports, democrats worry it could boomerang on them if it leads to higher inflation and they worry that oil companies could use the ban as an excuse to increase gas prices and they will wind up getting the blame and they expect republicans to

ratchet up calls to open up federal lands to oil and gas exploration, something biden and his democratic allies don't want and they argue that it won't make a difference on fuel prices in the near term. on the independent line, mike is next. somerville, massachusetts. caller: for at least my entire lifetime, over 30 years, the conservatives have been telling us that climate change isn't real and that alternative energy is some kind of whatever, communist socialist grabber or something. i want to send a big sarcastic thanks and say hey, give yourself a pat on the back because you are part of why we are here today talking about this. this conservative wing here, you hear the people calling in about the pipeline, they don't know what they are talking about. the oil refinery guy called in to correct them and we have a

big problem here where these are the same people who have denied evolution, told us the earth is flat, told us the pandemic is a hoax. they don't exist in the same reality that most of the world lives in. host: do you think there is enough green energy as a definition to replace what we currently need is a country when it comes to oil and gas? caller: my point is if we had started the conversation or acted on the conversation 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in this place. for example, during the obama years they gave subsidies for solar panels. these solar panels, you could pay $60,000, get a federal subsidy. at the time massachusetts was offering a subsidy. over six years, you break even. after that you can run on solar power.

you get so much energy that you get paid for it. these are the kinds of policies that would have helped us. we have had 30 years of people screaming about the flat earth and i can't stand it. host: you made that point, mike. let's hear from raymond in mississippi. hello. >> i was just thinking, you know, i was listening to the news on cnn about america, americans looking for oil, talking about going back to venezuela, they was complaining about all that cash, they didn't want to do that. i'm asking the question. don't haiti have oil? they are a poor country. can't we go in there and drill? that's my comment.

host: this story from yesterday, venezuela, hyden inching closer to reaching a deal with venezuela, a bitter foe currently as they are seeking -- seeking for ways to stave off economic and diplomatic, political impact. arriving as the white house sent a delegation to venezuela over the weekend to discuss energy sanctions imposed by the u.s. several years ago and to discuss the fate of american citizens who had been jailed in the country. one more bit from the white house, the press secretary yesterday specifically talked about increased gas prices. some of you mentioning that this morning. here is a portion of that from yesterday. [video clip] >> were gas prices not going up anyway because of post pandemic

supply chain issues? >> there is no question that as we have seen and outside analysts have conveyed this as well, the continued increase, something her colleagues were asking about, it is a direct result of the invasion of ukraine and there was an anticipation of that that was factored in as gas prices went up. >> you say you are going to do everything you can to reduce the impact high gas prices have on americans. we are asking other countries to maybe think about pumping more oil. why not just do it here? >> to be clear, they -- >> it's an executive order. >> let me finish. let me give you the facts here. it can be inconvenient but they are important in this moment. we have been clear that the

short-term supply must keep up with demand and here and around the world we have made a shift to clear and secure energy future, a large producer with a strong domestic oil and gas industry, producing more oil in record numbers. there are 9000 drilling permits not being used. this suggestion that we are not allowing companies to drill is an accurate. -- is not accurate. the suggestion that that is preventing gas prices from coming down is inaccurate. host: a story from cbs just to show you the headline, it could cause american families about $2000 per year. from michigan, this is todd, independent line. caller: good morning, back in the 70's when carter was and it

was all about iran. then it was about opec. then it was about reagan and the sandinistas. it's always some excuse to raise the price of gas. always. the bottom line is it's greed and it's sickening. maybe putin is on the right track. maybe we should shoot off a few nukes and give everybody a wake-up call. host: john in pennsylvania, republican line, good morning, you are next up. caller: morning, pedro. i think it's ridiculous what's going on here with the gas prices. here in pennsylvania it's going up another $.10 overnight. i seen that report with shell, buying it at a discount and selling it on the market at the highest price. and then sanders, he's complaining about them making

breath -- record profits. of course, we knew this. it happened during the bush administration. they made more money in a quarter than some companies make in their history of being a country -- company. you know it is price gouging. what i don't understand is how joe biden can stop the production of oil in the united states but continue to let russia provide europe with 45% of their energy, gas, and oil. yesterday the republicans had a vote on the senate floor to start up our drilling again and every democrat, everyone of them voted no. you know what it's all about? he wants these electric cars, he wants gas cars off the road. it's it's a war, it's a war on the fuel in car industry. the oil companies are happy to oblige because they will make record profits on this. host: that is john in

pennsylvania. there's a story today from usa today about asset tires and they have to go to raise prices. to give you a bit of that, they say it would be a violation of antitrust laws for gas retailers to collude to jointly lift at the same time according to the expert there that is quoted. it's over the past 30 years there have been more than 100 investigations and lawsuits wrought by consumers. the states attorneys general alleging conspiracies host: that is tom, who you heard from earlier, the global oil

analyst. a few more minutes on this discussion in light of what's going on in russia and ukraine. when it comes to oil and gas. ken, clear low, florida. caller: how are you this morning? host: well, yourself? caller: disgusted. i think it's very simple. i believe in renewable energy. i believe it's time for that to come but it will take years and years and in the meantime i think it is so simple. start drilling again, start producing oil again, be an exporter of oil. use the export me for renewables. that's my opinion. host: from pat, pinehurst, north carolina, republican line, go ahead. caller: two ukraine, putin is guilty of war crimes.

all countries and leaders need to call him out for the barbarian he is for bombing civilians. as to gas, biden would like to see -- putin would like to see us use up our reserves. so that we rely totally on him for fuel. biden closed the pipeline in a day, he can reopen in a day and stop blaming everything on the pandemic which was created by how cheap. -- faucher she -- dr. fauci. host: one other thing about the debate when it comes to oil and gas imports around keeping the federal government open, congress aims to follow the massive and long overdue fiscal 2022 omnibus spending package in the house and senate today, sending a vote to that chamber on wednesday where they potentially pass it before friday at midnight and the end of week deadline is when stopgap

funding expires based on negotiations on monday lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appear confident that a fourth continuing resolution won't be necessary to keep the government funded, adding that lawmakers seem to be in agreement inputting $12 billion into funds for humanitarian and economic aid to ukraine and nato allies. from buffalo, new york, eric, democratic line. caller: for taking my call. what's not being discussed is the profits the oil companies are making. just read an article, they made $100 billion in profits and most of that to stock buybacks. -- went to stock buybacks. what about all the uncapped, i mean captain wells not being utilized? they want to drill more in drill more in these people don't understand that the federal land is the american people's land and we are leasing it out

operations to drill. it all comes down to greed and money. a lot of factors that go into everything but opec is steady raising oil prices from two what -- two months ago and nobody said a word. saudi arabia has been fight about it. what's going on there? a lot of avenues can be taken that aren't being discussed. i don't know, that's my point. host: one more call from roberto in texas. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. in houston we are very concerned because i believe -- of course i can't prove it, but the russians, their next step may be a surprise attack on houston because we are the energy capital of the world. they keep insisting. that would be an intelligent move. they aren't going to announce it.

i would like c-span2 ask this question in the future. did nato begin the crisis? if russian troops were stationed in canada and mexico, do you think that the united states would be very upset? thinking about this in a broad term. thank you so much. host: what is the average price there in houston? caller: four dollars $.10 and the thing that is making it different this time is our sympathy or compassion for the ukraine people. because yesterday on the front page of the times they showed two bodies covered up and it said they were trying to flee and they were killed and the worst part for me is the child was killed. here's this couple trying to escape danger and ukraine and they were killed trying to escape. that was a very horrible. host: that is roberto in texas.

we will continue on. oil and gas, we have legislators joining us throughout the verse of the day. first we will be joined by a republican representative from pennsylvania on the house foreign affairs committee and later on in the program we will hear from andy levin of michigan . those conversations are coming up. ♪ [video clip] >> the russian military have begun a brutal assault on the people of ukraine without provocation, justification, necessity. this is a premeditated attack. >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to the russian invasion of ukraine. we have the latest from the president and other white house officials, the pentagon, the state department, and congress. as well as international perspectives from the united nations and foreign leaders.

all on the c-span networks, online at c-span.org or the free c-span now mobile video app. >> available for preorder in the c-span shop, the c-span 2022 congressional directory. go there today to order a copy of the congressional directory. this spiral-bound book as your guide to the federal government with contact information, bios, committee assignments, and the biden administration cabinet. preorder your copy today or scan the code with your smart. every purchase helps to support the c-span nonprofit operations. ♪

host: this is representative dan meuser, member of the foreign affairs committee, thank you for giving us your time today. guest: great to be with you, thank you. host: where are you on this deal around banning russian imports? guest: the idea that we spend $2 billion per month that we send to putin's government, to putin himself on oil that we could be creating and drilling for here in the united states, is upside

down and backwards logic and policy. makes absolutely no sense. president trump had assured that we were on our way to becoming energy donovan as we should be with the wrist serves we have. we are also the cleanest driller and developer of such energy. so the idea that we are buying 8%, 7.5%, $2 billion a month from putin, a tyrant, causing all kinds of abuses and atrocities in the ukraine in a completely outrageous invasion is foolish and it needs to stop. i think it will, zelinski, presiden zelensky asked for that on a recent call, among other things and we should certainly appreciate the fact that having been energy independent being a

national security issue, the biden administration has no understanding of this and refuses to accept this fact. so, we have lost leverage. on the same note, europe is receiving 40% of its energy from russia. they put themselves in a terrible position and they will not be able to wean as quickly as we could. we need to do it now, we need to stop purchasing oil from russia. i will tell you the private sector has already stepped up. exxon, shell, other companies having stopped purchasing russian oil since the invasion took place. host: already a concern about gas prices, you may have heard calls from the previous segment, what would be her message to not only those who represent that the public at large? host: call the biden white house and -- guest: call the biden

white house and tell them to start drilling domestically. it's an outrage. $3.75 before the invasion and now it is spiking to dollars seven cents. highest ever, higher than jimmy carter. congratulations, biden. we are in dire straits because of this. the american people are dealing with inflation. it affects the farmers, it would be nice if the biden administration could get into the real world for a few minutes and not to be so out of touch as to what these needs are. we are all for transitioning towards carbon free energy. natural gas is the best way to make such a transition. this is serious stuff. unfortunately we don't have a serious administration. host: if it is 8% that we get from russia and the legislation once to going -- legislation

goes into effect, is there a real impact or is it mainly symbolic? caller: we should make up for it by drilling domestically or from canada, a friendly country. if the keystone pipeline was put back in place, that would cover more than the energy we bring in from russia. the keystone pipeline alone would bring in more oil than we import currently from russia. meanwhile, the biden administration in another upside down backwards policy, they are in venezuela talking to a ruth list socialist -- ruthless socialist dictator who seized our assets years back, if they would please sell us some oil. look, i'm not, we have got to be constructive critics here in congress and in the house. but this is kind of outrageous. as you can probably tell by my tone.

these policy decisions can happen very shortly and we can correct the situation. 30 seconds of joe biden in this administration speaking favorably about domestic energy production and the plan, even if it takes six or seven months, will lower the price of gasoline by 20 cents overnight. host: our guest is with us until 8:00. if you want to ask him questions, democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. (202) 748-8002s -- independents, (202) 748-8002. if we get a majority of oil from canada and other sources, how do you define energy independence in light of that? host: we were -- guest: we were energy independent, 50% of our imports

come from canada, which works out. but 14 months ago we were gaining all of our energy resources from our own energy resources. that created a lot of things. a national security issue that kept the price of gasoline stable, which has a lot to do with inflation. soaring inflation. --. . when geopolitical events occur, we don't see these spikes that occur. during the trump time, because we were in office and energy independent, there were world issues in place. iran was doing terrible deeds, terrorist acts, other things taking place, isis was rearing its rotten head. there was a syrian issue. but you didn't see spikes in gasoline as you would if we were

not energy independent. host: these actions are expected by friday. where are you as far as supporting that? guest: we haven't seen the omnibus appropriations bill. i do look forward to being supportive. we need to analyze it. i understand many positive developments have occurred through the appropriators on the committee over the last couple of days. i am optimistic but we shall see. as you stated earlier, the deadline is the 11th. because the democratic leadership that controls the senate, the house, and the white house, has passed three continuing resolutions over the last year or so. they cannot even come up with a

budget. now we seem as if we are there. now i am hopefully i can support it. hopefully there are no poison pills that make it impossible for me to vote for it or make it not in the aggregate interests in the vast majority of americans. that's pretty much my litmus test. is it in the interest of the american strength economically and national security? and you know, frankly from a public safety law and order standpoint. host: what would be something that would raise a red flag for you? guest: in the past when we saw the rescue act, the compete act, things of that anchor, -- that nature, amnesty was put in there, billions and billions of dollars going to the u.n. for a slush fund. we had additional subsidies for

wishful green energy projects. as long as it is nothing glaring, i'm not in the business of making good the enemy of perfect. if it's overall in the interest of our american economy and national security, i will be favorable to it. host: a viewer on the twitter feed this morning asked the question as far as the oil and gas in the united states, what guarantees do you have that oil companies with lower gas prices would implementation of these leases. guest: well it's supply and demand. if they are opening up and there is more investment taking place in domestic energy, it's understood by the institutional investors and others that there

won't be this frankly assault on our domestic energy industry, that's a very encouraging prospect in the futures market and that would reduce the price of a barrel of oil. you know, that's taking place right now, right? the level of permits the biden administration has issued, my understanding is they haven't issued one since being in office, the biden administration. of course we have the executive order prohibiting new developments on federal lands. ok. but then he cancels the keystone pipeline and we basically have a situation where the administration is, to an extent, threatening and putting all kinds of requirements on the banks to wind back the level of business and investment they make within the fossil fuel industry. that's ready outrageous and

frankly it is taking place. so, those, those inhibitors to domestic energy need to be rolled back. host: here is henry, democratic line for our guest. caller: dan is another russian putin trump agent spreading misinformation. jen psaki just told us that there are 9000 cap two wells that the oil industry refuses to drill in. why? the oil industry is operating at record levels. they have no capacity to hold anymore oil. yesterday the head of s&p said the united states is now a net exporter, exporter of oil. dan, you are such a liar. guest: i'm not going to sit here and be called a liar, sir, all due respect. and i'm not going to call you a little naive to be listening to jen psaki all the time.

those 9000 wells existed before the price of oil to $110 per barrel, all right? they existed when oil was -- caller: can i get my turn to talk? host: caller, go ahead, finish your comment or question, please. caller: i have another take on the putin ukraine thing. look at the timing of this. with the truckers going to d.c., with the insurrectionists planning another insurrection, this time and armed insurrection. putin had -- putin and trump have gotten together and are plotting. host: what do you base that assertion on? guest: words versus actions, right? when trump was in europe he schooled the europeans, the eu, stating how could you put yourself in such jeopardy by purchasing oil from russia in that capacity, putting yourself

in such a position of, of weakness, should, should putin weaponizes energy resources. let's face it, a country cannot operate without energy. along with that, president trump on his way to visit and announced an executive order to keep shutdown for nord stream to. that's not exactly someone looking for a friend. before he went, right before, right as the plane was taking off, he said we are shutting down nord stream two, which putin invested billions in and was going to receive billions in return, setting the stage for what the negotiations would be like. that is how you deal from strength, all right? the united states is 15 term -- 15 times larger in gdp than russia. the united states needs to be dealing with strength and from strength.

putin seems to have the will to, to deal from strength. we haven't done that with afghanistan. we have made significant mistakes there and we made significant mistakes, we meaning the biden administration, leading up to the surrounding and the invasion that took of the ukraine. this has been going on for months. months. since august. it's not monday morning quarterbacking. many of us stated to the biden administration, to the secretary of defense, what is being done. zielinski has been asking for assistance ever since. we didn't. were we calling his bluff? he called ours. no more games, no foresight. host: another call for you,

nick, go ahead. caller: good morning, congressman. i think what you need to do is like you said, open up the energy sector completely and i'm hoping for a vetoproof majority in november with the gop. i would ask for two dollars per gallon gas for 87 octane and put that into law along with diesel for the truckers and then they can sell whatever they export. but do us first. the global market stuff has proven to be detrimental to american national security and i think we just need to take care of ourselves first and if there is something to sell after that, fine. if the economy was booming, we would have the revenues from taxes and people working to be able to get the american strength back to where it used to be and just override everything biden does if possible. host: you know, the biden policies are inverted to what actually works. if we take on a a a an

aggressive approach towards drilling and accessing our energy resources -- in pennsylvania we have the fourth largest reserve of natural gas in the world. new york state actually has one of the top, fueling the united states for the next 70 years. we have got these reserves, we have got access to oil. we need to develop pipelines and set a plan on how we are going to utilize current energy natural resources in the most pollutant free, carbon free manner. so it's clear that drilling oil here is far cleaner than drilling in venezuela, russia, saudi arabia, or iran. we are talking to iran, the center of terrorism about purchasing oil from iran. someday going to tell me that is intended inverted, upside down,

backwards policy, rather than drilling here safely, creating jobs, lowering the price of oil, creating national security energy independence and doing it in the most pollutant free manner possible, we are going to purchase from iran, a country that funds terrorism throughout the world? that is calling for the annihilation of israel? and they called for the annihilation of the united states if they thought they could actually do it? that is what the biden administration is working on? yeah, yeah, we need a serious plan that is, that puts country first and has, looking out for america's interests for the short term and the long-term. energy is a big part of it. host: this is kenneth, democratic line. delaware. caller: the domestic oil supply

could easily be supplied with the 33,000 oil wells in the gulf of mexico. it's a simple fact that american oil companies have 33,000 wells in the gulf of mexico. in relation to a domestic carbon free energy, we have a nuclear atrium reactor under construction in wyoming. it could use a 700,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in kentucky. all it has to do is be reprocessed. the reactor does not produce fissile material. i don't understand why our government isn't seizing upon these energy resources. guest: back to the wells, look,

we are at over $100 per barrel of oil price. wouldn't it be logical that these companies sitting on the wells would now access them and start bringing oil reserves from their? if the conspiracy being stated is true, you know, then shut it down when prices got low? what is the price of oil right now, 100 and $47? skyhigh? making the days of jimmy carter look like the good old days. so you know, let's just look at, we are in a supply and demand free market economy. companies are going to invest where they can get a return. as long as it isn't crazy regulations adding to those costs and the access, which actually does exist.

but two extents they have figured it out. if there is no pipeline, not refinery capacity, things of that nature, then they are not going to drill. on the nuclear end, sure, i read with you. we should have a long-term energy plan. nuclear should certainly be a part of that. i would love to see a 10 year energy plan or even 15 year plan. i was in business for close to 25 years and we didn't start a day, month, quarter, or year without a plan. a vision, a plan, and then the team executes. you know, you certainly don't see this out of this white house. i go back to the trump administration. we knew what the plan was. we knew what the priorities were and what the plan was to strengthen our economy, strengthen our national security

, secure people with freedoms, and, and to be, be the united states of america on the world stage. host: you talk a lot about supply and demand. what would you do about reducing demand for oil supplies in the united dates? guest: that will happen over a transition every time. yesterday i think it was kamala harris and pete who digestion said everybody go by an electric car. that's really naive and out of touch. first of all, most electric cars are pretty expensive. secondly, 97% of america has, has, has gasoline driven cars. and so it's really, the charging stations aren't there. most electric cars only go about 250 miles on a charge in those stations are powered by coal plants and oil plants and nuclear plants. by the way.

they are not appreciating the larger picture here. i have got nothing against ev, , who would? we cannot do this in a manner that weakens the united states, weakens our allies and gives strength to clear adversaries. how about taranto co., brutal dictatorships in the style of leaders like putin and, you know, china, the ccp is exactly a bastion of human rights, they aren't. genocide is taking place there. putin is murdering at will.

in the ukraine. there's a leader in the ukraine, zelinski, who was offered a ride to get out by the biden white house. right? he says i want bullets, not a ride. they are fighting for freedom. putin is fighting against freedom. this is probably the most important thing. that is what putin fears most. host: let's hear from mark in missouri. caller: congressman, i want you to know that i agree with just about everything you are saying. it's really unbelievable what's going on. i would like you to comment on the economy out of the biden administration. the way i see what's going on, i look at this inflation, we haven't seen this in 40 years. our gas prices are going through the roof in california.

i am seeing prices of seven and eight dollars per gallon. food prices have gone up tremendously because of inflation. goods as well. open borders, that's unbelievable, millions of people crossing the border. terrorists coming into the country. they don't even count the ones that get away. not only that, but all the fentanyl coming in and killing hundreds of thousands of united states citizens and the biden administration just allows it to happen. seems to me that he walks around incoherent, does not take questions from people, won't answer them. as well as the afghanistan debacle, host: let me stop you there, you're putting a lot out there. to the point on the economy, factoring in the jobs report from last week, 600 70,000 jobs created. guest: you didn't notice

anything that he brought up in the state of the union. he referenced the border once and jumped right to the dreamers and the dream act. which, by the way, most would support if we had border security first. as a state of the union it was more like a state of denial throughout it. look, related to our economy and what needs to be done, we need to have a vision, set a goal for the united states to be the most competitive tree in the world to run a business or sustain a business or start a business. that comes through taxes, regulations, energy independence so that we have instability there. we have a fourth branch of government at the state level and federal level.

the tens of thousands of employees within those need to get on board with helping being on the side of job creators. giving them hassles, frankly. this is a system that can be better corrected on the state level. so, we also need through government to assist in the areas where we have lost specific industries to china, frankly, when it comes to the ingredients in pharmaceuticals, our pharmaceuticals as a whole, certainly in microchips and semi conductors. there is a bill called the, excuse me, chip usa that i'm very favorable to [coughing coughing] chips usa will help us to

develop more semi conductor businesses within the united states. some of the large semi conductor companies are getting it. they are willing to, really out of patriotism, take some of the added costs of doing business in the united states and they are building here in the u.s. a lot of these corporations are stepping up in a frankly, a patriotic manner. intel and others, for instance. host: the last jobs report was not an encouraging trend? guest: it was terrific, three times with the biden administration thought would come out. i will tell you that on the same same note, a lot of the entitlements and extras and supplements created during covid and during the rescue plan that the biden administration thought was a wonderful thing to do,

spend $2 trillion of the taxpayers' money -- most of those benefits ended at the end of 2021. so, january, i think a lot of people, 5% or 6% is enough to change the unemployment and create a higher level of employed. and bring people back to our workforce. that is probably what it was, 5% of those who could afford not to work came back to work. and i think it is pretty clear what happened. and that should continue. host: one more call. john on the democrats line. caller: i wanted to point out a couple of misrepresentations that you have made, but there is many -- it's unbelievable. you talked about opening up the keystone pipeline and

pumping the oil again. it is only 10% complete and it was not pumping oil. and the oil in canada is coming through by rail, so that is a misrepresentation. guest: it would bring in 100,000 barrels a day. host: congress comella and finis ish his thought, please -- congressman, let him finish his thought, please. caller: you are talking about stopping the oil leases, there are 7000 oil leases currently held by the oil companies that they are not pumping oil. they are making record profits, they are refusing to pump oil on the leases they have. and that is why -- that's what is going on there. you either are misrepresenting -- guest: i certainly would never, i promise anyone this,

republican or democrat, i would never deliberately misrepresent. there is a chance i could be wrong on occasion. if you are pleased with the biden administration's handling of our energy policy, well then good for you. i'm not. i do not like that we have $4.17 or whatever it is very gallon of gas. i think it is detrimental to american families. i do not like that russia has us over a barrel, so to speak, and has europe. i do not like that we could be creating our own energy here, far cleaner by the way. and create many more jobs. i do not like about the heating oil in someone's home is up two or three times. again, diminishing the disposable income of american families, pennsylvania families into families and my district.

i will not only voice, i will work the legislation that corrects that. host: i wanted to ask about the supreme court's decision to let the we work congressional map in pennsylvania stand. guest: it is more than just disappointing. we have a legislative process in constitution -- in pennsylvania on how district maps should be derived and it was not followed. it went to the supreme court, they have done this once before, the state supreme court, and they drew their own map, which is not favorable to republicans, as you can imagine since the governor is a democrat as well as the supreme court. pennsylvania tends to be very political and it happens to be democrat. so, what is done is done. i will not say it was a terrible map in the end, although -- let

me retract that -- in many ways it was worse than it was positive.i retained at 70% of my district but i have to tell you that that is the sole consolation. when we lose a fabless republican member of our -- fabulous republican member of the u.s. house. so no consolation whatsoever. it's wrong. the constitution matters, not only does it matter it should be followed in a very strict way, state constitutions and u.s. constitution. and if it needs to be changed, and should be done by a referendum by the people. when you see something like that happen, it diminishes trust in our government system because the rulebook, i.e. the constitution, is what we must be able to rely upon further rules of government and for our -- for the rules of government and for

our freedoms. host: thank you for your time. we will continue for the next phone segment, looking at a question we started on this morning, your thoughts on gas prices, oil prices and oil supplies as what is related to what is going on in russia, the invasion of ukraine by russia. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents, 202-748-8002. we'll take those calls when we continue. ♪ >> the russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of ukraine without provocation, justification, without necessity -- this is a premeditated attack. announcer: c-span has unfold due to coverage of the u.s. response

to russia's invasion of ukraine, including the latest from the president and other white house officials, the pentagon and state department, as well as congress. we have international perspectives from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders, all on the c-span networks, online at c-span.org or on the free c-span now video app. announcer: now available for preorder, c-span's 2020 to congressional directory. go there to order a copy of the congressional directory. this book is your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress, including bios, also contact information for state governors and the biden administration cabinet. preorder your copy today at c-span shop.org or scan the code. every purchase will help support c-span's nonprofit operation.

♪ announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: the associated press looking at what happens if the u.s. acts alone and banning -- in banning imports from russia. a small share of the russia imports does not buy any of

russia's natural gas. they purchase 5% of crude oil exports. last year, 8% of u.s. oil products came from russia. the u.s. could replace russian crude from imports from saudi arabia. russia might find alternative buyers, perhaps in china or india, such a step would introduce massive inefficiency in the market which would escalate prices. this is according to the senior vice president of the analysts at rystad energy. talking about russian oil imports on the floor yesterday, rob portman, calling on the administration to stop imports. [video clip] >> we can do more to tighten sanctions. we can do more to provide more military assistance to ukraine. there's bipartisan agreement on much of this, including the need

to cut off the funding going to the putin economy and his war machine. one important example is not to buy russian oil. why would we be importing russian oil? sending russia $40 million or $50 million a day? that makes no sense. let's use our natural resources, we have the natural resources here. we should not be dependent on russian oil. we should not be sending them this blood money. by the way, there is bipartisan agreement on this. last week there was legislation and an equal number alike wanted to do just that. host: the new york times looking at prices of regular gas on monday in several states. $5.34 in california, massachusetts at $4.16, the national average at $4.07, $3.96

and idaho. and texas at three dollars and $.73, the lowest -- at $3.73, the lowest. so for the next half hour we will talk about what is going on overseas and the effect on gas and oil. go ahead. caller: the first thing i wanted to do was ask about the united nations and what they could do to take away russia's voting rights for a set amount of time for not listening to the charter's rules. they broke every single one, i read them all. then i found out because they are impermanent and they would have to veto the whole united nations -- are permanent, they would have to veto the whole united nations. russia can actually veto the

thing about them getting a sanction. so you cannot do much with that. my other question is, are the oil companies still storing oil because the price of gas is too low for them to put it on the market? host: greg in chattanooga, tennessee on the independent line. caller: i was trying to catch the oil and gas prices. the fact that a lot of the news hosts are doing as a disservice because they are pading the democrats -- padding the democrats' way of looking at things, not the republicans. they said that biden is in the hospital or something. he could not stop putin. host: what are you talking about? he hung up.

david in st. petersburg, florida on the democrats line. caller: how are you doing, sir? i'm just going to call -- i wanted to let you know i saw joe manchin the other day and he summed it up. until this administration starts working for the american people, it's like joe manchin was saying, it seems like everything that the biden administration does is detrimental to us and they do not see the damage it is doing. they feel like $4 a gallon is not harmful, even $6 that they do not have to pay. they make really good money. it hurts the middle guy like me. i think that we should stop any kind of oil, buying oil from putin, that is a no-brainer.

anything that is good for america, biden is against. host: wait a minute, david. you are calling on the democrats line, i just want to ensure that you are a democrat. caller: i am a democrat. like i said, joe manchin was on the old chris wallace show, i forget the name. host: i just wanted to clarify in light of the statements you made. jennifer jacobs reporting on her twitter feed that the u.s. has an announcement, that they will be in on russian oil, according to sources. a white house announcement is expected as soon as today. so stay close to c-span for more on that. on the republican like my daniel from stanford, texas. -- line, daniel from stanford, texas. caller: for four years we had

gas prices under $2 a gallon. the past year and a half it has been climbing up, now up to $4 a gallon. i live on social security. after a few my bills, i am lucky if i have $40 left. if it takes $100 to fill up my truck, i will have nothing left. host: the new york times, part of the reporting on the gas aspect of what has been happening, saying even before russia invaded ukraine energy prices were contributing to the fastest inflation in 40 years. energy prices, including home electricity, accounted for more than a six of the total increase in the consumer price index. the recent jump in energy prices will only make the problem worse, forecasters expect that the february inflation report, which will be released on thursday, will show consumer prices rose 0.7% last month and

have been up 0.9% over the past year. the overall inflation in march will top 8% for the first time since 1982. from brian on the democrats line, new york. caller: thanks. i have been listening to the question of gas prices as it relates to the current state of the world. and, the one thing that i keep hearing over and over again is about the politicians and we fail to realize how corporations have control over supply and demand in this country. we even heard it on this show, people talking about drill, drill while there are thousands of unused permits now because it is not in their best interest to

drill right now, it is in their best interest to raise prices on the supply they already have. in 2020, they noticed how little we actually were consuming at bedtime, due to the pandemic and due to other factors that kept people staying at home. gas prices were at an all-time low. and they did not need to increase the supply then. now they are basically gouging us and blaming it on politicians. not to say that there is nothing that politicians cannot do, but it is like we have to wake up to the reality that it is not all one person that holds the blame. we have to hold these companies more accountable one way or another. host: on the independent line, john in birmingham, alabama. caller: good morning, pedro. i guess the previous caller

stole some of my thunder because i had the exact same comment in that the previous guy from pennsylvania, the representative, was an outright liar. you asked him about so-called energy independence and he basically said 14 months ago america was producing all the energy they used. but that is a lie. we have been importing 20 million barrels of oil a day from around the world, mainly from canada, for years. it did not just start 14 months ago. he said we are supply and demand. that is not driven by patriotism, it is driven by profits. it's a completely money motivated a process by the oil and gas companies to sit on reserves because they are making money. they have a profit motive to keep the oil prices high. it does not matter what the president does, he can tap into the national oil reserves,

whatever, it will not make a difference because they are sitting on it. last week, all oil is not made equal. just because we have oil we can drill does not mean it is suited for producing gas. different types of oil have different purposes. it's not as cut and dry as we needed drill more oil. we can drill a lot of oil, but it is not the best for whatever purpose, in this case for making gasoline. some may be better for making plastic. i think it is incumbent upon people to pay attention and not let people come on here and alive to them, even when they say -- and lie to them, even when they say they are honest. host: aside from that forthcoming announcement on oil imports come a couple other things to watch out for today when it comes to related topics. security, that will be the topic

for the select committee on intelligence, an annual report looking at threats. you can see that on c-span3, online or watch for full coverage at c-span now. the global response to the russian invasion of ukraine will be with the undersecretary of state, testifying about of russian invasion. an investigation on the international response. that will be at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon on c-span, c-span.org or the c-span now app. president biden will travel today to texas to talk about the issue of burn pits, an issue highlighted during his estate of the union address. and you may have seen the tweet concerning the announcement. in georgia, wallace on the democrats line. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. host: you are on, go ahead. caller: could you schedule an

individual to come on and talk about the eia, and they will answer many questions in regards to petroleum and other -- host: the energy information agency? caller: yes. american citizens can go online and google all of these statistics of petroleum cost prices, liquidations that come from different states and countries that we import and export. host: we did you learn specifically from the website -- what did you learn specifically from the website? caller: the price of gasoline from 1920 all the way up through today. you can see the statistics of every president that has been in office, how the prices have been produced under each presidency

from this time period. you will notice every time a republican president comes into office, we produce less oil. host: ok. willie in cincinnati, ohio on the independent line. caller: can you hear me? host: you are on. caller: i have one or two issues. in the future, can you get an honest republican to come on and it speak the truth. you allow them to gaslight a lot of information and you do not cross-examine these guys. it makes the people think that biden is not trying to do the right thing. and that is crazy. as far as gas prices, that is nothing but profit, pure profit. it goes up in anticipation of a crisis. it does not go down when a

crisis comes about. they go up to meet the demand. and they cannot even justify the demand, but they can justify the profits. so if you ask the oil companies who are fighting to pad their pockets right now because of the electric cars, and you have republicans coming in -- and they know that. host: mike in north carolina on the republican line. caller: i have a few things. what the gentleman said, what about when the gas jumps in the day and they start reducing it, why don't they reduce it by $.10? we get these government officials to stop flying everywhere, like the president going to texas, that takes a lot of fuel for all the support

vehicles -- how about they start flipping their own bill? host: the administration uses the same type of transport for republican and democrat officials. caller: i'm not putting anybody down, but why don't they start putting their own gas bill? -- footing their own gas bill? host: kim on the democrats line. caller: one thing i have not heard mentioned, and i may have missed it, is the fuel efficiency of cars. several years ago, and i am not sure who was in office at the time, we began producing cars that got 40 plus miles per gallon. somewhere along the line gas got cheap, the manufacturers began building these suvs and giant trucks, and of course people are going to buy what is available. so with the small cars going out

of fashion, we now have very inefficient cars in this country. granted we can purchase electric, but there are quite knew who people who cannot afford a brand-new electric car and there are very few used electric cars on the market. i would love someone to come on and talk about that a little bit. and the gentleman you had on earlier mentioned that we import 7% of our fuel, the figure i heard was 3%, but no matter what the percentage is, i believe, that just by being more efficient and cutting back instead of whining -- if everyone attempted to do that we could make a huge difference in this country. host: lee in tennessee, the independent line. caller: uh, yes. i would like to remind

folks of the oil reserves that run from alabama through mississippi and into northern louisiana. biden is not stopping the drilling in those areas. and they are not being used. what they did wrong was building a refinery in the dakotas instead of a pipeline. and that is all i have to say. host: one more call. ronald on the republican line. caller: -- host: hello? caller: hello? host: we were on. go ahead. caller: i am calling to talk about the -- he's playing monopoly with the world and chess with our president. and our president, he is playing

chess with him. he's scaring him. what they fear that donald trump would do. and trump had putin scared. you see what is going on? that is my opinion. host: next, we will hear from another legislator about the themes we have been talking about. we will talk about the latest on ukraine and energy prices. that conversation with andy levin, when we return. ♪ >> the russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity -- this is a premeditated attack. announcer: c-span has coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine, bringing

you the latest from the president and other white house officials, the pentagon and state department, as well as congress. we have international perspectives from the united nations and his statements from foreign leaders on the c-span networks, online or on the free c-span now mobile video app. announcer: now available for preorder, c-span's 2022 congressional directory. voted a copy of the directory today. this compact looked is your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress, including committee assignments. also, contact information for state governors and the biden administration cabinet. order today, scanned the code with your smart phone. every purchase helps to support c-span's nonprofit operation. ♪

♪ announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: andy levin sirs the ninth district of michigan -- serves the next district of michigan. thank you for your time. guest: it is good to be with you. host: there was an announcement reported that the president is a set to announce the u.s. is about to ban imports on russian oil, what do you think about that? guest: we have got to hit putin

where it hurts. they get most of their revenue from the export of oil. and i do not think the u.s. should be part of good being that kind of money to putin, so i am in favor of it. host: as far as hitting them where it hurts, you have seen stories about gas prices. do you think this will exacerbate what is going on with oil supplies in the u.s.? guest: i do, but we have to look at the oil companies and to see what they are doing. they are making record profits, executives are making outrageous compensation packages. i think that they have to step up and contribute to what really is a patriotic effort, an effort to save democracy, here in ukraine. the ukrainians are standing on the front lines of protecting democracy worldwide and i think everybody has to do their part. in terms of americans, we have got to lower costs for americans. people realize that gas prices will be volatile.

and i feel like we have to do everything we can to keep prices low. at the same time, americans have a patriotic feeling about this. we are not about to allow putin to run over countries willy-nilly. it's a tough situation, but we will do everything we can to keep the prices down. host: what is the ability then, what else can be done? guest: obviously, there are reserves. we should look at what the oil companies' behaviros are and make sure there is no gouging going on. host: you probably heard from the last guest about doing more here to produce and manufacture oil, what do you think about the idea of energy independence? guest: that would be for us to hurry up and transition to renewables. none of this would be happening if we had way more offshore wind, onshore wind, solar,

battery storage. this situation in ukraine is dictators trying to hold countries and the world hostage because of the fossil fuel economy. so i think we have to accelerate our transition into renewables, and meanwhile, we ought to produce the oil we have. and we have lng terminals that, you know, could be built more quickly to help europe with natural gas. there's a lot we could do, but it is long past time to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. host: you have a background in the energy field, what convinces you that green energy can supplement what we need here and possibly replace it? guest: there is no question about it. to give you one example, if we could figure out the issue with ice with the offshore wind turbines in the great lakes, that could produce way more electricity than we need in

michigan altogether. so the capacity of the sun and wind is virtually unlimited. and the supply is free, so let's get going. host: in light of the president's forthcoming announcement, does this push congress to pass of their own sanctions? guest: we will have to see exactly what the president is doing, but i cannot tell you the sentiment -- the republicans, democrats, all united that we will do whatever it takes to come to the defense of the people of ukraine. military, sanctions and humanitarian, and we have to keep diplomacy going because at some point diplomacy is the only way to end wars and it bring people together. but we are very strong on supporting ukraine with weapons, with humanitarian aid and with sanctions. we are working very closely with the administration, we will

see the details, but i expect us to try to pass a robust package of aid on all three of those fronts, this week if possible. host: if you want to ask about these topics he could do so at 202-748-8000 for democrats, 202-748-8001 for republicans, and 202-748-8002 for independents. text questions at 202-748-8003. being a member of the foreign affairs committee, president zelensky has called for a no-fly zone, or increased efforts on that front. what do you think about the possibility of that? should that be an option? guest: my heart aches for the ukrainian people and we have to do everything we can, but we do not want to take a step that would turn a tragedy of this scale into an even unimaginably larger one by starting a war between nato and russia, or the

u.s. and russia, nuclear powers. we need to not cross that line. a no fly zone sounds simple but when you have u.s. or european or russian planes shooting each other down, that crosses the line where i think we are in an active of war with russia. host: the spinning package you referenced includes aid to ukraine, what does it do on the weapons and support side? guest: we have already given ukraine $4 billion since 2018, or since 2014, $1.5 billion in the last year. we are pouring weapons into ukraine as fast as we can. people have compared it to the berlin airlift. so, we are targeting more weapons for them. the kinds of things they need

the most, antiaircraft weapons, antitank weapons, the kind that are small enough to learn quickly and also to use in an insurgency or when you are on the run, which is what their situation is, unfortunately. host: if all of those things are being played out, what more could we do as far as that support is concerned? guest: i literally think that we are trying to do everything we can. we are trying -- and it is not just the united states, our allies are deeply involved in this. history is being written here because of how germany has changed its posture, how finland has changed its posture, even switzerland has left neutrality behind. and australia, korea and others are stepping up and contributing. so i think that the global effort was very important to isolate russia, and also in

providing support for ukraine in terms of weapons and humanitarian aid. host: look for that announcement coming from the president possibly at 10:45 a.m. this morning. as a member of the foreign affairs committee there's reports that possibly in terms of replacing what we might lose from russia could come from venezuela, what do you think of that? guest: i do not have a comment on that. today, we need to look at all angles to deal with this. and i think we need to -- we are actively in talks with all oil-producing nations about stepping up to meet the needs of this historic and tragic moment. host: as far as concerns about previous sanctions, and some have expressed concerns even having talks, do you think that is a valuable effort? guest: with venezuela, no, i do

not have a comment about venezuela in that regard. host: let's hear from the audience. stephen in florida on the democrats line, you are on with the democrat from michigan, andy levin. caller: good morning to both of you. i wanted to make a comment concerning our oil reserves. the oil companies have over 1000 wells -- had over 1000 wells pumping before the pandemic, after the pandemic hit it was shut down to less than 300. i heard they only opened up less than 700 of those and we still have another 300 that could be opened. why haven't they opened those up, why hasn't anybody talked to the oil companies about doing their part to bring down the price of gas? that is my question. guest: yes, well -- i agree with

the sentiment of stephen's question. we need to work with the oil companies to open up production, to look at not things that would be exploratory for the future because that takes too long, to maximize production now with the capacity that they have domestically and around the world. he is right on in this regard. any sense that production is being withheld in order to maximize profits is unacceptable in this kind of a global crisis. host: carlos in missouri on the republican line. go ahead. caller: yes. host: go ahead, sir. caller: i want to ask how much money he has invested into green energy, including blind trust. why do they not address the

war going on at the southern border, the drug war, where they are pouring drugs across the border and millions of people are pouring across the border? guest: carlos, i do not have blind trust or anything like that, i am not a wealthy person. i only have money invested in mutual funds or index funds. i do not know what the individual stocks are, so i do not have investments like that. and, uh, let's see -- what was the second question? host: issues at the southern border. guest: i think that we need to make sure that we deal with drug trafficking. it's a huge problem. the fentanyl coming into the country is not -- it's not

mostly pouring over the southern border, but to the extent it is it is coming through ports of, not the places in between. most of it is really coming from china, a lot is manufactured here domestically. the war on drugs has been a total failure. what we need to do is dea with this epidemicl of opioids and really help people deal with this crisis in their lives. we have got to do with treatment. we have got to -- deal with treatment. we have got to really help americans, look ourselves in the mirror and reduce the demand side and help people in trouble. host: troy in virginia on the independent line, go ahead. caller: good morning. my question, sir, is -- one thing i would like to see.

i know the future is electric cars, but i would like to see them pass or put solar panels on the cars and pass something where they use a standard size, so you do not have panels at that do not fit anything anymore. at that point, when the car is sitting still it could be charged. in california, how are you going to charge these cars when you shut down the power grid? guest: that is a fascinating question, james. the relationship between the size of the solar panels and needs of cars for energy does not make panels on cars, you know, super effective from the research i have seen. what's really interesting, and what we are working on, is the idea of charging cars while they are moving by putting charging infrastructure into the roadway

itself. so, every one in a while you have a mile of charging while the car is going down the highway. they are innovative ways to charge cars more efficiently. and reduce the time that people need to charge. but i agree with you, also. one important thing about dealing with grid issues is distributed generation and having the production of energy distributed as widely as possible so that people are getting closer -- it closer to home and it takes energy out of things like war, but it also deals with if there is a storm in one place less people are affected. host: with electric vehicles, are those cars cost prohibitive for most americans at this point? guest: if we passed the tax incentives we already have in the house, and that we need to

pass through the senate, i mean, we would provide major incentives, up to $12,500. and it is not something that the buyer or taxpayer has to figure out, the dealer would deal with it. you just have to take that price off the price of the car. ev prices will come down as the production ramps up. we are in early days as they are mass-producing in greater numbers -- days. as they are mass-produced in greater numbers, the prices will come down. host: do you think the sentiment for these type of vehicles is there, or the trust in these verses a conventional gasoline car? guest: now you are really talking about how rapidly we can change. pedro, i have my electric vehicle freedom act, which i

introduced in the last congress, and it would provide high-speed charging infrastructure throughout the u.s. highway system, not only interstates, but smaller roads, including in hawaii and puerto rico, so you could get in electric vehicle anywhere and drive anywhere else in the u.s. and not worry about running out of juice. that's what we need to do to allow people to trust it, even though the vast majority of miles people drive are local and 80% or more of charging is done at home. i own a chevy bolt. we charge it in our garage. we only have to make sure that charging is available for road trips and for people who do not have a garage, for people who live in apartment buildings. that is in my ev freedom act. when people drive an electric vehicle, they do not want to turn back.

they are so quiet, the acceleration is awesome, and the performance is amazing. even not a fancy car, but like a chevy bolt like i have. ev cars are the future. people will love them. we just have to make sure the infrastructure is there. host: representative andy levin is joining us for this conversation. on the republican line, go ahead. caller: i think that my question was already answered because i was calling because nobody talks about the price of the batteries. my son was telling me that some of the batteries on the bigger vehicles can cost close to $10,000. i was wondering if that was true. they keep pushing it. you know, i could never afford -- i would have to wait 10 years to buy a used one. and i am 65 years old, so that

is not going to happen. i was wondering about, uh, if these windmills, are they able to be hacked into? what if russia could, china or anybody, could knock our power out that way too? i think we need the gas and stuff because, you know, we always have to have options. that's all i have to say. host: thank you. guest: thanks, butch. it's true that batteries are a large part of the cost of electric vehicles. on the other hand, they have fewer parts. for a uaw supporting guy like me, that is an issue to look at because there may be less jobs in production and we want to make sure that they are good union jobs, and the workers do

not lose out as we make the transition. that's very important to me. but the cost of batteries is significant, but then you have less other cost. there's literally no transmission. we have to drive the cost of batteries down. even with the price of these pickup trucks, people are paying about $70,000, $80,000 more for these diesel pickup trucks, right? so i do not think that the electric pickup trucks need to cost more than the gas ones. in terms of sabotage, obviously if a refinery or a pipeline or anything could be hacked or interfered with by sabotage or something, the same is true or could be true for other kinds of energy sources, so plate is not really speak to which energy source we need. it speaks to the need for cybersecurity. and that is a very important

thing. host: our guest service the ninth district of michigan. our next call is from anthony in detroit, on the independent line. caller: good morning from all the way back in detroit. i'm having trouble accepting the u.s.-made the -- version of events in russia, it seems like you would have to ignore everything that happened eight years previous, the coup and all of the violence happening there for eight years, which is there has been. it supposes at that the usa never illegally invaded a country. the hypocrisy with this russia thing is through the roof. guest: anthony, the united states has a long history, going back centuries, of imperialism, of invading other countries. so does england, portugal, spain and many other countries. but it is 2022 and the united

nations was formed in 1945 and 1946 at the end of world war ii. we have moved towards trying to create a rules based order in the world where a country's sovereignty is respected, way people have the right to self-determination. -- where people have the right to self-determination. i think what is happening in ukraine is the greatest violation of that rules based order that we have seen in europe, absolutely. basically, you have a dictator saying, i believe i can just have the country next-door and i, unprovoked, will overrun it. already in 2014, vladimir putin violated ukraine's sovereignty, rolled takes into crimea and also supported insurgency in

donbass and the eastern borders areas of ukraine. this is not some thing that is acceptable behavior. the behavior of the u.s. in the past is no excuse for russia doing what they are today. and it is something that the whole world is uniting around. this is not something that is just being felt in the u.s., really countries all around the world, with just a few exceptions, are saying that we have to reject vladimir putin's horrifying war of choice where he's committing war crimes. he's killing civilians in large numbers. five hospitals were hit recently. it's really -- what russia is doing in ukraine is a violation of the laws of war and of basic

human rights of ukrainians. and certainly a violation of the most basic principles of the international order, which is freedom and self-determination for people and the sovereignty of countries. host: it is said to have a background in doing work for asylum-seekers, with that in mind what should the u.s. be doing for the refugees leaving ukraine? guest: i am glad you mentioned that. i think we need to look ourselves in the eye and say, we need to treat refugees from other regions well, as well, like from haiti, where we have repatriated millions of people, and appropriately in my view. this crisis in ukraine is a chance for us to wake up and say, obviously these people do not want to leave their country. we need to do everything we can to protect them and keep them safe. the u.s. already is, the

administration is doing a tremendous job of this, of supporting poland and other countries bordering russia financially to help the refugees, but we also need to take refugees. if there is a need for refugees to leave the bordering countries, we should welcome them with open arms and take them and. -- in. i know my vibrant ukrainian community in detroit, michigan has the eighth largest in the country, i believe, is ready to take their family members and friends. and we would all welcome these refugees. and we want to make sure that they are safe. host: are there discussions on streamlining the process to bring them to the united states? guest: yes, and lifting caps, there are discussions on all of those things. we need to expedite the process. host: on the republican line, john. go ahead. caller: i had some questions,

may be they do not pertain, but we have a lot of push for renewables. you always hear about the wind, electric cars and charging systems. my question is a lot of the minerals that create the batteries and parts that are building them -- the countries we are sourcing those through. host: john from michigan. guest: really good point. we need to work on sourcing of the rarest minerals and all the supplies needed for batteries and other equipment in the push for renewable energy. we need to develop our own sources and work with countries around the world to diversify the sources of these materials.

it is something that the secretary is working on, that the department of defense looks at closely, because we do not want it to be a national security issue. that's a really good point, it is something we have to work on. the united nations, in the midst of this terrible crisis in ukraine, the united nations came out with a report that said that global, the effects of global warming, the storms and hurricanes, the floods, though forest fires -- the forest fires, they are happening more intensely and quickly than we could keep up with and is overrunning us with disastrous consequences. so even as we focus on supporting the people of ukraine, we cannot lose track of the need to very rapidly transition into renewable energy. in fact, this war is a climate disaster.

war in general is a climate disaster. and we are seeing this play out before our eyes in ukraine. the cost -- fueling these tanks and jets, but also destroying infrastructure, then having to rebuild it. first of all, it is insane as a general matter, but it is also a huge climate cost that we have to be aware of his will. host: in michigan on the independent line, robert. caller: yes, sir. i have a comment. it's my own thoughts. i do not believe putin ever -- this war is about energy, not oil. and he will not quit until somebody takes him forcibly out of office. that's a fact. talk has not been doing anything for the ukrainian people.

if i was 20 years younger i would be going over there myself, because the man has to be stopped. i do not understand why the world is not stopping this madman. he's insane, just like hitler. let's get the job done and get it done now. it's not about oil. thank you. host: go ahead. guest: yes. well, you know, i agree with robert, with his sentiments in the sense of the i am not sure vladimir putin is really saying -- sane. i do not think he listens to his advisors. it's been obvious from how poorly the war has gone for the russian troops that he's not the top of the chain of command that is effectively communicating. and because he has his finger on

nuclear weapons, it's extremely important that we handle the situation well. i agree that this is not all about oil, this is about vladimir putin's imperial designs. whether it is the czarist russia or the ussr, he wants to reinstate some imperial vision of russia where it controls all these countries around in some kind of fashion, an empire or like the soviet union, and we absolutely cannot allow this to happen. i think that it is easier said than done that somebody should eliminate someone who is very carefully protected. and, you know, we do not want to do anything that would lead to a nuclear war. let's remember that one nuclear weapon can incinerate millions of innocent people.

and we cannot let that happen. and another topic i feel like we need to work on, over time, whi ch is we have fallen down and the world has fallen down on nuclear nonproliferation, on getting the treaties, reducing the number of nuclear weapons and in dealing with nuclear weapons in the hands of nonstate actors. this is a wake-up call on that level that we better get going with russia, china and other countries to reduce the threat of nuclear war, which is the ultimate in human folly. host: do you think the events occurring in russia have upped as far as discussions about ramping up spending for the defense department, reconsidering that in light of these potential threats? guest: i do not think that this is a question of the military budget needing to be bigger. we have immense -- an immense

military budget. it's bigger than the next 10 countries combined. and we do not lack resources. the countries that have spent less than us, like germany, all of a sudden germany has said we'll invest much more heavily in this area. i think one of these things you are really pointing to, pedro, is this situation has strengthened nato and has brought us together. and it is doing the opposite of what vladimir putin wants. what i don't really agree with, saying people are sitting around or just talking. the sanctions we are imposing on russia, many of them are unprecedented and we are continuing to add sanctions on. we are targeting putin himself. the all glug arcs -- the oligarchs around him personally, their families, we are kicking

banks out of the swift system. the ruble is basically worthless. the stock system in moscow can't even function. we will continue retching up the pressure and isolation and it's important we are doing this with all of our allies. the go it alone approach would be a complete failure in this situation, and president biden has done an amazing job. secretary blinken, defense secretary austin, uniting our allies to come to ukraine's defense i do not think it is about us spending more money on the military, i think it is about reinvigorating the forces that want to protect democracy around the world. host: before we let you go, you have a background in labor issues and there have been reported over the last couple weeks an effort to unionize health aide on capitol hill. how is that going and do you think it will happen? guest: yes i do. i am the person who introduced

the resolution to allow our own staff to form unions. it was a great honor to be asked to do that. i am the union organizer in congress, spent many workers of all kinds form unions. i know about some bosses saying unions are fine for other workers but not my workers. so we cannot do that in congress. 26 years ago -- or 27 years ago, congress passed the congressional accountability act and 26 years ago it got implemented and we applied the ability to form unions to the library of congress, the capitol police, the architect of the capital, all of the workers who take care of this place, except our own staff in district ndc officers and on our committees. for 26 years they have not had this fundamental human right. i believe it is part of the first amendment, freedom of association, that if they want to, they can form a union and bargain collectively.

so the chair held a hearing of the house advent committee very quickly after i introduced a resolution. i am pushing now for it to be taken up, voted on, and passed so the staff of the house can add long last have this basic right to form a union and bargain collectively with us, their bosses. host: representative and 11, on the foreign affairs committee, thank you for your time today. guest: thank you. take care of yourself. host: next up, learn about how sanctions are formed not only on the white house level but also in congress. joining us for that discussion is brian o'toole with the lead to counsel. we will walk you through that and have the discussion when "washington journal" continues. ♪ pres. biden: the russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of ukraine . without provocation, without

justification, without necessity . this is a premeditated attack. >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the response to russia's invasion of ukraine. read the latest from the president and other white house officials, the pentagon, and the state department, as well as congress. we also have international perspectives from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders, all on the c-span networks, online at c-span.org, or on the free c-span now mobile video app. >> now available for preorder in the c-span shop, c-span's 2022 congressional discovery -- congressional directory. this compact book as your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress, including bios and committee assignments. also contact information for state governors and the biden administration cabinet. preorder your copy at

c-spanshop.org or scan your code . every profit helps c-span's organization. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is brian o'toole, a senior fellow at the atlantic council, senior vice president and director of sanctions and screening for truett financial corporation. thank you for your time.

guest: great to be here. a quick note, it is the olanta counsel for purposes today. host: as far as the purposes of sanctions are concerned, explain your background as far as what you have done in the work of sanctions. >> i have spent much of my career doing work in illicit finance, started at the central intelligence agency back in 2003, and joined the treasury department in 2009. i was there for eight years in all variety of sanctions related matters and spent a good chunk of the time as chief of staff senior advisor at the office of foreign assets control and treasury, which is the office to implements u.s. economic sanctions and enforces them. host: we expect an announcement from the president today concerning potential sanctions for russian oil. can you walk us through up until this point how that is formed when the white house imposes sanctions on another body? guest: so there's a whole bunch

of ways it can happen. it can come top down and come from the white house in terms of trying to figure out options for solving any sort of follow -- foreign policy. or can come from the bottom up depending on where people are seeing issues, issues like organized crime, trafficking, basically at these interagency meetings that the national security council can use to get everybody around the table to discuss options for dealing with problem acts and problem acts right now is rush and occasionally ukraine. for a long time it has been russia's aggression abroad, aggression internally, and how to deal with that has often involved sanctions. in this particular case with oil and reported upcoming restrictions, what will happen typically as folks will sit around the table and discuss the ways russia is weak compared to

the united states. typically those involved in the financial is immensely powerful in that world. the rate -- and the way russia generates revenue like oil and gas account for 40% of the russian budget and so you want to kind of take advantage of sanctions -- you want to hurt the other guy more than yourself so you take advantage of an asymmetric advantage. then you look at how you can mitigate impacts where russia might have leverage, and that is what the discussion has probably been for the last few many days -- last many days across the pond and elsewhere, this discussion of, we need to go after the oil to really get at the heart of the russian economy in a lot of ways or at least the power levels -- leverage that the kremlin controls. and how do we mitigate the impact to the western consumers

and global economy? as economic growth goes up, economic -- host: who's at the table so to speak from the cabinets point of view and how much of this work is delegated to other people when the sanctions are developed? guest: they do a lot of the research from kind of the expert civil service level. so you get these options papers that layout we can do this or this, depending, and these are the advantage ends -- advantages and disadvantages of each. so you have real experts spending careers working on these issues. then the decision-making kind of goes up to something more of a political level, to narrow the options down or give approvals to pursue further research on whichever option seems to be preferable. ultimately at the end of the day, especially for something as important as this decision as the president who makes the call around the table with the vice

president, the secretary of state, secretary treasury, secretary of commerce, and a number of other officials who have -- advisor to excel of and will be in those discussions -- people who know the landscape and understand what the reverberations will be for those decisions. host: brian o'toole from the atlantic council joining us for this discussion. if you want to find out about the sanctions, ask questions about it. you can call (202) 748-8000 for, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, and independents are (202) 748-8002. and text us at (202) 748-8003. for the amount of sanctions you have seen so far, based on russia and those associated, how do they compare historically as far as the amount and impact of sanctions? guest: the amount is always a weird way to quantify it because you can go by the number of individuals designated, but you can designate 1000 terrorists and not have the same impacts as

any large bank in terms of economic impact. so that is a bit of a weird measure. the sanctions that have been imposed on russia in the last several weeks are a -- i get tired of saying this word -- but they are unprecedented. there is nothing like it in the history probably. russia's economy is one of the largest in the world, though dropping dramatically. it is globally indicated -- integrated and has big banks and financial institutions. you can go down the list. it is very different than other places. in terms of -- if you think about sanctions as a continuum, a zero to 100% of the impact imposed, i always think of iran and north korea and somewhere around 95%. i was a russia is somewhere around 70 to 75% of the moment, just quite left to do -- quite a lot left to do in terms of energy and there are those

countries that have a broad financial burden and cannot do business with those countries with limited exceptions. russia is not there yet. it's an a very different place and cut -- and could end up there. as far as the nominal impact, it is enormous because of the size of the russian economy. there is still quite a lot left to do. host: as far as financial institutions, in dealing with sanctions, how do they get fraud into the process? guest: u.s. financial institutions are often the front line of defense for u.s. sanctions. they are the ones who affect transactions overseas, which is where a lot of the sanctions nexus occurs, you are transferring money to a company while conducting business, things like that. so banks are an obvious funnel point and banks are where the u.s. has a huge strategic advantage. when it comes to imposing

sanctions on russia, banks are an obvious target because they are a proxy for the economy. oil and gas might have a huge portion of the russian budget and russian perceivable's, foreign exchange earnings, tetra. banks have a ripple effect through the a cot -- through the entire economy were not only those will have. the u.s. a few weeks ago went after the largest bank, second-largest bank, and those two banks have huge presence in the economy. in terms of total assets, it shares the entire russian banking sector, those two comprise something like 45% to 50% by themselves, an enormous concentration of the sector of those two banks. those sanctions have huge effects, and on the other sanctions, especially central bank of russia, have caused real panic in russian markets.

russia kept its markets closed for the last week and it will open up wednesday, presumably to any absolute firesale probably. that will have a big impact across the economy and an impact on whether those banks have enough money to reduce lines at atm's. there -- the banks are often a good target because of the and scope of impact throughout the economy. host: let's hear from ralph, washington, dc, independent line. hello. caller: hi. this is absolutely insane. weren't you telling people the price of fertilizer would go up three times? or we would be paying seven dollars or eight dollars per gallon for gasoline, or our food processors would get more expensive. you guys want to put sanctions on everybody. this is like it is an art form. we started this. putin, we had an agreement with russia that we would not put nato on their borders and then we keep pushing nato into

ukraine, he warned us time and again, and i'm watching the news media with all of the left-wing clowns saying while this is horrible, we can't invade a country without reason. we have to look back beyond iraqi were mass destruction didn't exist for false reasons? they are about to launch attacks on russia from poland. poland is a nato country. what you think russia will do once we do that? we are not just going to give them planes, we decided we will launch them from a safe airbase. host: thank you. guest: mr. o'toole. guest: your points are inaccurate in a few places, not least the idea that poland will launch attacks on russia. that is just not true in any way, shape or form, nor is there a promise that there would be no troops on russian borders. a setting those aside, there are

real economic impacts when you talk about sanctions on a country like russia. that is absolutely a fair point to make. i think when you are a western policymaker, you end up a lot of times or any policymaker you end up in having to choose the least worst option. economic impacts are often unavoidable, and in a case like this, the combined west, including the g-7 countries, canada, japan as well, switzerland has joined in on this. they have decided and made the calculation that what is going on in ukraine and the assault on kind of the western democratic order, the rules-based system that kept this world largely peaceful since 1940 five and provided unprecedented economic growth is worth defending. that sometimes we have to pay an economic price or the ukrainians are paying with their lives. host: you talk about the impact when it comes to those in

russia, particularly vladimir putin himself. what effect do you think you will directly feel from the sanctions? guest: that's a little hard to figure out putin sometimes because he -- it is highly unlikely he will choose to sacrifice any of his comforts or his wealth in exchange for helping out the russian people. but look, there will be massive economic ramifications across russia without a doubt. you are already seeing it in the ruble and as your previous guest mentioned, falling off a cliff. russian stocks are down in pennies, spare bank, the largest bank in russia, has been waited at -- trading at $20 and $21.50. these have real economic impact. inflation in russia, there has been shortage, talking of pegging russia's currency since they have $130 billion in

reserve that has wiped out a lot of russian -- in line a huge impact on russian business, russian consumers, russian economy. i suspect there will not be a lot of impacts to putin personally because he will always control power as long as he sits at the head of that very long table he's got. and that is a choice he makes. he chooses himself and his cronies over the russian people every time. i would not expect that to change. so the impact to putin is he sees his army having trouble in ukraine, sees his economy struggling, his people around him potentially starving, a little unhappy. there have been slightly louder piece from some of the rich oligarch class in russia about the impact of sanctions and the password business and perched's

-- business interests have been impacted. it is not much in terms of a political challenge to putin. we will see how it plays out, but he will still have his palace on the black sea that he can visit, he will still have his planes and is very long fancy table. host: as far as the oligarchs are concerned, one of the themes you have seen is the fascination with super yachts. like out of a factor into all of this? guest: yeah. they are symbolic in some ways, but as my colleague, the former ambassador and sections coordinator at the state department said, it is a state matter and seizing a $600 million mega yacht, super yachts, whatever you call it, boats that have smaller yachts of their own attached, those are symbols that that can be important. as the previous color mentioned, sometimes what people cr increases in prices at the pump and increases -- what people see

our increases in prices at the pump and increases elsewhere. these are having impacts. there is a very rich man who made his money off the back of the russian people. host: julie in illinois, independent line. caller: hi. i have a couple of questions. the first is that i wanted to know why it was so easy to put a sanction on the american people by cutting off the pipeline, yet it seems so hard to put it on other countries or that we cut off the pipeline. i'm not understanding why it is so easy to sanction the american people but not sanction other countries. by stopping what we buy. guest: i gotta admit, i'm not sure what pipeline you are referring to and statutorily, the u.s. cannot sanction u.s. people that easily.

if you are referring to the keystone pipeline, that was an export pipeline for oil coming down from canada i believe. in any event, it is hard to stomach increased prices, and while you don't have to think about domestic politics a lot of times in situations like this, it is unavoidable, but people paying higher prices in the pump will impact in november and that is the calculation. there is a balancing act the administration has to take between environmental and economic concerns -- environmental, economic, and foreign policy concerns. host: from arizona, james, republican line. go ahead. caller: hi. i'm calling from arizona. i got a couple of questions, statements i want to make. when we do all of these sanctions and everything, and we are having gas prices the way we are going right now, what is

going to be the repercussion on our navy ships and military aircraft that need these to fly? you cannot put electric data into an f-35. i'm sorry a disk racing at the way i am, but why are we not sanctioning our southern border as well because of all the fentanyl coming into this country echo this is insanity, and everybody just wants to turn a blind eye to everything. i live 30 miles from the border and it is incredible what is going on over here. thank you. guest: thanks, james. the military's purchase of fuel is factored into market price so i don't think our role -- there will be any this rupture into navy ships, fighter jets, or anything like that. those things get factored into the market price.

as far as the southern border, there are a huge number of sanctions on traffickers working -- traffickers. working with mexico is sometimes difficult because of the counter drug authorities and the like but it is not something people would turn a blind eye to. i would note that about half of the u.s. sanctions list is made up of narco trafficking designations, somewhere around half or may be these days. it is a big focus for the administration, just gets a lot less -- it has been a focus of the administration for as long as i have been doing this for 20 years. it just gets a little less attention than it deserves sometimes. host: if the sanctions are place upon russia, including the one today, could russia turn to other countries to help him out -- help them out? guest: not with any great success. the china question has been there for a long time, but

russia -- look, even if russia can turn to china, they can really only deal within the chinese currency. the only thing they buy from china -- they trade surplus with china because they sell more to china than they buy. the primary thing that russia imports from china are electronics. a fair amount of those will get cut off -- cut off an export control restrictions that may make them unavailable to export to russia in the first place. even if china wanted to help russia, and i'm not so sure china wants to because russia is a sinking ship economically, there is not much russia can do with a bunch of chinese currency. it will not be useful to them. they can certainly not capitalized with banks or otherwise finance their economy through chinese credit. that is not what china does economically, and they do not have the currency reserves to do that. host: let's hear from barbara in

pennsylvania, democrats line for brian o'toole. good morning. caller: good morning, mr. o'toole and "washington journal." i would like to know if you think it would be a good time for nato to let the countries joined nato, because it seems like putin -- that is one of the reasons he is warning those other countries that he can't control them yet. and if they were in nato, they would be able to be protected. guest: it's a very good question. i thing there has been interest in certain public opinions in some of the nordic states having going up quite a bit in terms of folks favoring joining nato as compared to even a month ago. nato is open for applications as i understand. i'm not a nato or military expert, but it is a complicated

consideration that has to do with in operability forces, issues of that interest. it is a little more complicated than does so-and-so want to join and would it make them safer. but it is still i think something that nato is open to, if the right conditions are met. in those conditions are often on a case-by-case basis. guest: from hawaii -- host: from hawaii we hear from dean on the independent line. caller: good morning. it seems like what we really want to do is hurt putin and russia for what they have done, and it seems like the only way to do that is to lower the price of oil. it is just going to get sent to different countries. so i have a little solution here. what if we invoke the defense production act domestically, put oil on the market, and in essence it will lower the price

-- in full cost opec to have to lower their prices because we are adding more production into the world and economy. what do you think of that? guest: thanks for the question. i'm not exactly a domestic energy expert, but it is not that easy to just been up oil production and turn it out. it takes -- i think one of the challenges is the west faces a short-term spike in prices. it is this short-term most concerning because it will level off as others increase production, including u.s. producers, whether that be shale or otherwise be a die do not know if the defense production act would be useful or not in certain stances. it may or may not be. but the idea that we would be able to fully offset moving russia's oil entirely through market through u.s. production, i'm not sure that is realistic,

but i do think the administration is looking at different ways to canned tamp down the price as much as it can and certainly increase production in the u.s. is what they have been looking and talking about. host: you talked about the white house approach, the sanctions. before this, we heard about congress developing their own. what is the process for them versus the white house? guest: the congressional sanctions process is much like any other bill, it is going up through committees, it can come out of two places in the senate and typically one place in the house in terms of committees, and then it goes up for floor votes and everybody attaches amendments to it. then you can get a standalone sanctions bill. so with iran, you've got a bill passed in 2017 targeting russia and iran. there are all of the standalone sanctions that happen. congress will consult with the

administration, call the experts of treasury, state, and talk to them about the effectiveness and operability of certain sanctions, passages, to try to make sure what they are doing works. especially works the way they intended, since that is often a little difficult to do. the other way sanctions can come about is you see a fair amount of sanctions legislation getting past, things like the national defense authorization act, the department funding bills, reliably passed bills every year. you see things get hung on bills like that, to get past whether they are iran sanctions or other sanctions. those are typically the primary vehicles. congressional sanctions authorities then operate either as standalone nor in conjunction with sanctions that any administration passed. if you think about iran's sanctions, there is this

complicated overlay of things commerce has done and various administrations have done and they are all jumbled together in a unified set of regulations that get enforced. host: when it comes to those administration sanctions, how complicated is it that when other countries are involved -- then when other countries are involved? guest: especially other countries that have different types of authorities where you cannot get at the exact same targets, from the u.s. perspective and some of the points i have been trying to make for a while, the top level policy matters more than becoming the unification of sanctions lists and people sanctioned and things like that. in the u.s. and european union, u.k., britain, and canada and japan have all been kind of remarkably consistent, much more so than in the past. outside of the united nations context and the you and can pose sanctions as well. -- the u.n. can impose sections

as well. the countries get together and talks about the approach and types of things they want to go after an targets they would consider, then execution is a separate matter because it works differently in different countries. in the european union, it is its own animal, but it can be a complicated dance. there's a lot of diplomatic work and time that folks spent in meetings with those folks to unify the policy and messaging. host: last call, joshua, republican line. caller: hi, brian. comrade joe, brandon biden, put sanctions on the american people his first day in office. he did the paris climate accord. if we made everything here, the electric cars, the windmills, and the solar panels, we would

be rebuilding america, but they do not work for us. they work for all of these foreign countries. they even work for vladimir by raising the gas prices up where donald trump had the gas, the barrel of oil -- barrels of oil to the negative. america, wake the heck -- host: ok, we will leave it there. mr. o'toole, as far as the announcement later today, the president, particularly what we will be paying attention to from that announcement? guest: i think we will be looking at the way they implement any sort of oil cut off from russia, whether it is via import restrictions managed by the agencies who oversee those, to whether it is actual sanctions against the russian exporters themselves, which may have broader implications for

their dealings, especially in oil fields in russia where western companies have been joint venture partners, and in any sort of wind down or carve out pieces of that which give you some period of time to implement. typically where there is a supply chain involved, the administration will take an approach that lets ships get to their destination off of cargoes and that sort of thing. looking at the particulars around it to understand what the real impact is, and whether it will go broader, i think the other big question is how and whether they do the european union and how they manage. the people consumes a lot more russian energy than the u.s. does. russian energy in the u.s. is relatively minor, but it is a bigger lift for the european union to make similar action here. so figuring out how they will for the needle will be very interesting. host: brian o'toole of the atlantic council, senior fellow

talking about sanctions. thank you for your time today. guest: thanks for having me. host: when it comes to that announcement from the president, 10:45 is what we are expecting, when we are exciting to hear from him. you can follow along at c-span.org and also at c-span.now. we will turn to what you think as far as russia and ukraine and particularly when it comes to gas prices and oil supplies and those related topics. here is how you can call and let us know your thoughts. (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. we will take those calls when we return. ♪ pres. biden: the russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of ukraine , without provocation, without justification, without necessity . this is a premeditated attack. >> c-span has unfiltered

coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine. bringing you the latest from the president and other white house officials. -- officials, the pentagon, the state department, and congress. we also have international perspectives from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders. it is all on the c-span networks, online at c-span.org or on the free c-span radio -- c-span now mobile video app. >> now available for preorder in the c-span shop, c-span's 2022 congressional directory. go there today to order a copy of the congressional directory. this spiral-bound book is your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress, including bios and committee assignments, and also contact information for state governors and the biden administration cabinet. preorder your copy today at c-spanshop.org or scan the code with your smartphone. every c-span purchase helps

c-span's nonprofit organization. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: if you want to text your responses on the response from the administration on sanctions, you can do so at (202) 748-8003. he was at the white house yesterday, the topic of gas prices coming up with an exchange with press secretary

jen psaki. here is what she had to say. >> what is the president's message to americans going to the gas station today and seeing crisis -- prices so high? [video clip] >> the president's message is he will do everything he can to reduce the impact on the american people, including the price of gas at the tank. what is also true is, because of the actions of president putin, because he invaded a sovereign country, that created instability in the markets. that is something the president talked about even before russia and president putin moved forward with their actions. we have already taken steps. the president has already taken steps, historic release from the petroleum reserves, one done in a coordinated fashion. certainly we will continue conversations with large oil producers and suppliers around the world about how to mitigate impacts. and consider domestic options as well. >> on friday, the administration is looking at options it can take right now to cut u.s. consumption of russian

[indiscernible] when will that decision be made? >> i do not have a production of that for you at this point in time, but there is an active discussion. host: that discussion was yesterday. as far as announcements today, there are reporters saying to expect an announcement on a ban on russian oil imports to the white house -- imports and that the president would continue to hold russia accountable for its unprovoked war and ukraine. look for that at 10:45. c-span now or c-span.org is where you can find that. in light of that, speaker pelosi is telling the house will go forward with their bill to ban russian oil and punish russia global trade, even if the white house plans to announce their oil ban today. the bill may be tweaked or watered down, but still expect house action. the house democrats will go on the retreat this week. the funding bill is still to be considered in the house and

expected to be voted on by tomorrow, but to the topic of oil and gas, prices will go to you. greg starts us off. southpoint, ohio, republican line. hello. caller: hello. first, i would like -- people should not confuse trumper's with republicans calling in on a republican line. a real republican has no problem paying a little more gas to support democracy. we are not communist sympathizers. in fact, our own party members in the 1950's would have some of these politicians and lead citizens of our country that back putin. host: if you can relate your topic to either the ukraine or topic of gas prices, keep going. caller: yeah, well gas prices are fine. you have to make a little effort , pay a little price for the freedom and democracy in the world. a couple dollars is a pretty

small price instead of being on the front line getting shot at. host: let's hear from don in new orleans, independent mine. hi. >> good morning -- caller: good morning. i have two questions. what is the difference between an emperor and king? we allow the saudi arabians to be kings and princes, but anyway. the issue with gas prices and transportation prices, we know that gas is one thing, but the issue of the rising cost of diesel, diesel is a byproduct and left overs of refinement of gasoline. the diesel prices for american truckers. but for the road, diesel is minimal because railroads -- railroad, diesel is minimal because railroads and trains are part electric and parties and they can haul more than a trucker, independent trucker

can. another part of the gasoline issue is public ran pate. cities like new york, new orleans, san francisco, all of these puppet transportation, we should be investing with taxes as part of the gas and diesel prices almost 40%. after that is state taxes and federal taxes. so we should be building, investing in amtrak and the railroads and public transportation and the training and wages and benefits of public transportation of workers in chicago. all of these cities have strong public transportation but are in need of infrastructure and investment. host: ok. that is down in new orleans. let's hear from amber in pennsylvania. democrats line. caller: hi, good morning. you for your service and taking your time for answering our questions. i just have a question about on

the other end of it, still dealing with gas prices, the trade war with china. and how it impacts not just the consumer good tariffs but does it have an impact as well with oil prices and things like that? host: what do you think about the impact as far as the current day gas prices where you live in pennsylvania? caller: i mean i know they are up but i am ok with paying more. it is either we pay more now or we pay with our lives later, in my mind as a veteran. host: what is the average where you live? caller: i pay -- it is about $4.39 for what i've seen for 87 grade on the signs. i try to fill up the day before and not wait until the day after during the recession. -- after, i learned that during the recession. host: how has that changed during the week if you know offhand? caller: it jumped up. probably within the dollar mark but is enough to catch your eye.

it was at 359 -- $3.59, and then $4.39. host: that is ever in pennsylvania and we will hear from mary, independent line. caller: hello? host: hello, you are on. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i am calling in regards to what the president had said in his state of the union, that we should be buying american, united states-made products, but we are using oil from russia, and why are we not using our own oil that we have in our country? and i just do not understand that. i just was wondering also why

was everything shut down before -- for the new energy they are wanting with solar before it was ever even started? i'm very confused about that. if you could give me some answers, and i'm very much upset about what is going on on the borders. host: that is mary in indiana, one of the spinoffs of what we have seen concerning russia in ukraine, particularly when it comes to the stock market and those issues and how it could affect public pensions, the wall street journal reporting pension funds facing stock loss, saying funds had a median of 61% of their assets in stocks as of december 31, up from 54% 10 years ago. according to the wilshire trust comparison service, since russian ukraine war and the expectations the federal reserve will raise interest rates have battered equity prices, reducing holdings by billions of dollars

as the nation's largest pension fund, the california public retirement system, total reported holdings have fallen to $475 billion as of march the second from $482 billion at the end of january. the s&p 500 total return is minus 2.7 plus during the same period, roughly half of the california worker find stocks. more that in the wall street journal. in new orleans, democrats line, this is johnny. caller: yes, sir. host: as far as gas prices and oil supplies, what do you think? caller: what i want to say about the gas price is, look at it this way, the american people, they worry about the gas. cigarettes go up to nine dollars per pack, but you want to complain about four dollars in gas. infrastructure needs to be worked on. our roads and bridges are

falling apart. when we got money to send to everybody but the american people. we worry more about the outside then the american people. everybody wants to talk about what trump did. trump stole a whole lot of money because he is broke. that is what trump did. he's probably got put in in his house right now. host: that is johnny in new lowlands. the wall street journal also reporting about 8% of u.s. imports of crude and refined products came from russia last year. if a ban were imposed, refiners would struggle to find alternate supplies of vacuum, gas, oil, and fuel oil, which u.s. providers -- refiners process. citing the challenge in europe -- europe would buy more crude from others to replace lost barrels. though there is little slack in the markets and shifting demand from one place to another is not simple, according to the founding partner of the

consulting firm energy aspects. tony is next, fort lauderdale, florida, independent line. caller: good morning, pedro. second time trying to get through today. are they trying to raise the issue -- during the campaign, i heard candidate biden on the defense production act. if this is not a time to invoke it, i do not know when is. why doesn't he invoke the defense production act and tell the oil companies to produce 10%, 5%, 7%, whatever oriole they need to offset. just not buying from russia -- oil they need to offset. just not buying from russia will increase the oil supply from the world, but if we can put at least that number, so we don't send money to russia to buy bullets to kill our own people and allies.

and there is one more thing. people worry about gas price and the price of diesel. everything on the shelves gets thereby diesel-powered motor and that will really hammer prices. have a good one. host: alan is also in iowa. this is on our line for democrats, princeton, iowa. hi. caller: good morning. i heard people talking about they cannot afford an electric vehicle. i think they need to be may be looking at an electric bicycle to do some of their sidetrips. i have bought in a couple electric bicycles in the past two years and i love them. i have put over 2000 miles on my electric bicycle in the past year and use it for most of my errands. thank you and have a good day. host: how close are things to you that you can travel by bicycle? caller: i'm about 20 miles from a big town, and if i need to go

to the hardware store to pick up a bulb, i do not need to take my truck. host: so is that 20 miles or do you travel 20 miles or are there shorter trips on your bicycle? caller: shorter trips too, just her little errands around town. you can buy an electric bicycle now for $1000 that will have about a 35 mile range. host: is that just running on pure electricity or do you petal to supplement? caller: depending on how you want to ride it, sir. most of them are set up so when the moment you start peddling, the motor will kick in, but there are different settings you can set up on the controls, and you can -- my bike can get 70 miles with the range i have on its. host: ok. alan there in princeton on his bicycle telling us about his experience on his electric bicycle. caller: from ohio, republican ash bicycle. from ohio, republican line, richard is next. caller: thank you.

thank you for taking my call. this oil bit that we have here in the united states, we have gobs and gobs of oil. why don't our president have them go ahead and keep drilling? because what is going on here, we are paying somebody else for their oil, but we have our own oil right here in the united states. i do not think our president biden -- she needs to get his head out of you know what, and if you don't, then they ought to go ahead and kick him out of office. host: ok, that is richard in ohio. the new york times adding, when it comes to duration of high gas prices, they add the extreme prices, which are sometimes gas hovering near six dollars per gallon, could be fleeting. accelerating production and in

show oil field is excited to replenish supplies soon. the chief u.s. economist at j.p. morgan said he expects consumer spending to slow over the next few months as americans pay more to fill up their tanks. some people will be able to draw on savings to partly cushion that blow. both long-term impacts should be somewhat minimal. gasoline accounts for only a fair -- fairly small -- let's hear from ray, paradise, california, democrats line. caller: hey. i don't have a lot to say except i have no problem dealing with the gas prices right now. after seeing two children and one of the murdered by an explosion in ukraine, i do not think we are doing enough. i cannot emphasize enough how

ashamed i am of president biden. i wish i had voted for trump, and i think he needs to reverse all of his policies on oil and natural gas. host: when it comes to what you are paying in california, what are you paying currently and what can you tolerate as far as how high it can go? caller: i don't know how much i can tolerate, but i sure cannot tolerate watching putin murder a bunch of people, innocent people in ukraine. i think if we purchase anything from putin, we are absolutely wrong. host: here is sabrina, in new york, independent line. caller: can you hear me? host: you are on, go ahead. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i wanted to just make a comment.

may be an open space for other callers that call in, especially people that may be over the age of 45 to 50. i am in my late 30's, i have just taken a road trip across the country, it is my 12 time doing this, and i listened to c-span the entire trip. one comment i often make is the gas prices started at $3.40 something in new york and not change much except about $.10 across the country. i hit ohio, indiana, oklahoma, kansas, missouri, arkansas, alabama, i'm sure i missed out on the different ones but i ended in california. california, for unleaded regular, $4.60 was the highest. on my way back, the prices were

falling. i just got back two days ago. i cannot imagine that it has changed that much in 48 hours, but who knows. with that being said, i love that we are focused in on sort of an antiquated issue. not necessarily but slightly. the older generation is making this connection between say fossil fuels and sustainable energy. i'm seeing this, these windmills in texas and kansas where they were never before. i see them in pennsylvania where they were not even a year ago, but then we are also not opening the conversation to make -- this is what america does, we connect through conversations. that is how we learn and echoes of the change somehow. older generations, make a connection. you guys are smarter and wiser than us. what are your opinions and thoughts on the fact that farmers and etc. have transferred from wheat to soy,

some are putting up windmills, and it costs more and is worse for the environment, to get rid of the waste from those windmills than it is what our benefit of having them. if you go to the individuals having those, say those windmills placed on their properties, those individuals will tell you of the suffering of how that did not work out for them. host: so that a sabrina in new arc giving her experiences when it comes to topics of energy and the like. a related story, this is from the metro section of the washington post. the government accountability office releasing a report based on a survey of capitol police officers, about the events of january 6, saying the report by the gal based on the survey recommends more crowd control training, noting many officers said there was a hesitancy to make force or arrests during the melee of january 6. most officers answer questions there should have been more guidance and intelligence shared with officers ahead of time who

more than 200 to 300 officers surveyed think police and brass offered insufficient instructions before and during the attack. or of half of the officers surveyed said intelligence information and guidance had not been shared with them adequately or at all. one noted if offers "had any information on the morning to prepare for a long day" they would have a different mindset. you can read that in the washington post this morning and the house coming in a few minutes from now. bobby in indianapolis, democrats line, hello. >> good morning and thank you for taking my calls. i would like to say you had a color may 7 take callers ago and i think he is right. i'm not saying nothing about bush, obama, or trump, i'm not doing that, but it seems like to me when the republicans are in office, the price goes down.

when the democrats come in, the prices go back up. i remember obama had to open up -- i think he finally had to open up the reserves i think it was, to give us some release, and like your guest from michigan said, these places need to be investigated. there is something wrong with that. i drive a semi and i think i got two 100-gallon tanks. right now, it would almost cost me $800 to drive a day and a half. it is just like everything else. everybody has got into each other because now the brokers are not paying as much because they know there's a lot of guys out there that would take paying loads. they are just gonna stay home.

host: that is bobby in indianapolis. npr and others reporting the senate unanimously passed a bill yesterday criminalizing lynching and making it punishable by up to 30 years in prison. the house of representative last month, president biden is expected to decide on it, through -- is expected to sign it with virtually no opposition. the passage took more than 100 years and 200 failed attempts. bill is next in pennsylvania, independent line. hello. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i got a spreadsheet where i keep track of oil prices since 2016, but right now i am looking back at january 18, commodity price of fuel was $2.68. i purchased oil then at $3.18 per gallon, a $.50 spread. this morning, i called about the price of oil and it is $3.98 at the commodity price right now, and it is now $4.98 if i wanted

to purchase today. that is a one dollar difference. sounds to me, looks to me, like we are getting gouged. nobody wants to talk about that possibility, and i think that is something that needs to be addressed. a lot of this inflation is gouging. host: that is bill in pennsylvania. linda in indiana, independent line, just a few minutes before the house comes in. go ahead. caller: hello. think you for taking my call. this is my first time getting to your program and i love your program. number one, i would take the taxes off of any gas. host: go ahead, you are still on. caller: i would take off any taxes on gas americans are buying. number two, out of all the things we're doing with russia while pugin is in office, we know who is and we know he lies. he is not a good leader. cut everything off including

oil. number three, i wish washington would act quicker and not be so reactive. we need to be proactive. thank you. host: that is linda in indiana and dave is in las vegas. we have less than a minute so go ahead. caller: first of all, we do not belong in ukraine, it is not our fight. putin does not one missiles on his borders. we should not be there. we want to send the money, that is fine, but they will get us all killed. if nuclear war breaks out, putin will not let them put missiles in ukraine. it will not happen. it is like when they tried to put missiles in cuba. the russians tried to do that. if you want world war iii, keep it up. host: that is dave in las vegas. 10:45 is when we expect president biden to make that announcement concerning russian oil supplies, possible sanctions. there are couple platforms you can watch that on and you can go to c-span.org and take advantage of our free c-span app,

c-span now, if you want to do that. looking at the events of ukraine, follow the website for that. for now, we take you to the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the -- the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., march 8, 2022. i hereby appoint the honorable jahana hayes to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 10, 2022, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate.