quality. similar to the russian oil that iranian oil could come on the market pretty quickly, too. depending on when they finalize the deal that could bring prices down in general. it might not necessarily come to the u.s. but it might make it possible for the u.s. to use other oil in place of russian oil. bret: the biden administration clearly has these green energy policies and they want to continue those. one of the things that has been reported is that the epa is looking to shut down small refineries. do you believe that to be true? well, it s complicated because it goes back to the renewable fuel standard, which is a mandate to put ethanol in gasoline. the price of the credits that the refiners have to use to meet the requirements of the renewable fuel standard have gone up. and they are looking for relief. they don t get that relief, it could be problematic, you bet. bret: so, if that happened, what would do do for the price? we don t need to lose any energy capacity righ
that 498 russian troops have been killed so far in ukraine. bret? bret: significant. jennifer, thank you. president biden spoke with his top advisers today during a cabinet meeting. he is under increasing pressure to ban russian oil imports completely. even pressure from within his own party. white house correspondent jacqui heinrich has that story tonight live from the north lawn. good evening, jacqui. good evening to you, bret. the president said the economic sanctions the u.s. and its allies have imposed so far have had a profound impact on minimizing the economic consequences for other countries; however, biden has also said that taking action, union find manner is the most important tool. but he is losing unity of his own party in protecting access to russian oil and gas. the white house is seeking $10 billion from congress to provide aid to ukraine. the administration is not willing to sanction russian banks processing energy transactions or ban russian
good evening, bret. and, look, the bravery that we have seen over the last week from the ukrainians showing signs now there may not be enough as russia continues to make strategic territorial gain. russia, purportedly with 900% of preplanned forces in ukraine intensifying military often with a coordinated focus on the south. moscow claims it has captured the port of kherson which would be the first major city to fall since the invasion began. armored vehicles streamingly empty streets lombardi protester waving ukrainian flag. separatistdonbas region black sea russian control of the crimean region would shut ukraine off from vital shipping lanes and build a land base to strike into odesa and north towards the capital. in mariupol heavy fighting reported on the outskirts and the international red cross says electricity outages and water and food are creating a desperate situation. i have seven children.
stretch there. the president was given very poor advice from legal team around him. some of that is unearth the in these emails. bret: former president trump says the actual conspiracy to defraud the united states was the democrats rigging the election and the fake news media and the unselect committee covering it up. few things could be more fraudulent or met with more irregularities than the presidential election of 2020. as mentioned, what s happening now, gasoline prices continue to surge here in the u.s. meantime europe is scrambling to reduce its dependence on russian energy, russian oil. and there is a debate about that here in the u.s. let s bring in oil industry expert kevin book. he is the managing director for research at clear view energy partners. kevin, thanks again for joining us. where do you work we are where do you think weare right . what would it be filled with? what would fill that hole? bret, the russian oil that s
energy imports to the u.s. as long as we re buying russian oil though, aren t we financing the war? well, jacqui, again, it s only about 10% of what we are importing. i have not made any announcement about any decision on that front. and anyone who is calling for an end to the carve out should be clear that that would raise prices. even house speaker nancy pelosi taking a harder line than the president. i m all for that ban it. on capitol hill, lawmakers taking matters into their own hands. introducing a bill to ban all russian energy import. this is bipartisan. it means it actually has some legs. so nancy pelosi is with us which made me wonder what am i doing? [laughter] she is right. putin brings everyone together. yeah, listen. the white house says such a move would cause prices to spike further and claims there is no immediate fix. the keystone pipeline has never been operational it would take years to have an impact. democrats across the spectrum