Tesla CEO Elon MuskElon Reeve MuskOn The Money — Push to block Russian imports hits wall Elon Musk invites UAW to hold unionization vote at Tesla The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Sights and sounds from Biden’s State of the Union MORE urged the United States to increase its oil and gas production following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the negative impact on his company.
“Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures,” Musk tweeted on Friday.
“Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports,” he added.
Several Republicans responded to Musk, echoing their agreement.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Sen. Tim Scott
“America is funding Russia’s war by buying Russian oil and gas rather than producing our own,” Rep. Lauren Boebert
The tweets come against the backdrop of a bipartisan group of lawmakers signaling support for a ban on oil and energy imports from Russia. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
“I’m all for that — ban it,” the House Speaker said. “Ban the oil coming from Russia.”
Sens. Joe Manchin
“The United States has the ability to backfill and help all of our allies around the world as they [Russia] use this energy as a weapon,” the West Virginia senator said during a Thursday press conference. “We have to make sure that we’re doing ours [energy production]. We do it cleaner than anybody else. We do it in a better fashion anybody else. And we have the ability with a reserve to do much more during this crisis.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki
“We are looking at options we could take right now to cut U.S. consumption of Russian energy, but we are very focused on minimizing the impact to families,” Psaki said. “If you reduce supply in the global marketplace, you are going to raise gas prices.”