Natural gas lines in Ukraine.
On March 25, 2014 Rep. Ted Poe of Texas asked for and was granted permission to address the United States House of Representatives for one minute regarding Ukraine.
“Mr. Speaker, the Napoleon of Siberia, Putin, controls Ukraine and other European countries by holding their energy needs hostage. Russia uses gas as a political and economic weapon to manipulate its neighbors. This does not have to be, and the United States can change that.”
“By selling European countries our oil and gas, we can reduce their dependence on imperialist Russia. We have more gas than we can use here in the United States, and we could sell the gas we don’t need to our allies in Europe. That would create jobs here in America and help our allies overseas. The same goes for crude oil”, he said.
“Mr. Speaker, my amendment that passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee today would require the State Department to submit a report to Congress within 90 days on the effect our increased natural gas and crude oil exports would have on Russia’s economic and political influence over Ukraine and other European nations. Ukraine has to get their oil and gas from someplace. Let’s have them buy American and make the Russian bear Putin and his energy irrelevant”, said Rep. Poe (source: Congressional Record http://thomas.loc.gov ).