WASHINGTON, DC — ICYMI (In Case Your Missed It): As first reported in Fox News, Representatives August Pfluger (TX-11), Craig Goldman (TX-12), Julie Fedorchak (ND-At Large), Randy Weber (TX-14), Pat Fallon (TX-04), and Dan Crenshaw (TX-02) sent a letter last week to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent applauding the Department of the Treasury and the Trump Administration for taking decisive steps to block Russian energy assets that help fund Moscow's military and cyber aggression against Ukraine and U.S. allies. The letter also highlights the importance of ensuring these assets do not fall back into adversarial hands.
Read more about the letter and find the full text here.
Over the weekend, Rep. Pfluger joined Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street on Fox Business to discuss the effort to block Russian energy revenue streams and the impact the ongoing conflict in Iran is having on global energy markets.
Watch the clip here or by clicking the image below.
Read highlights from the interview below:
Maria Bartiromo:Russia could be one of the biggest winners in all of this, as global oil prices are spiking. The Financial Times reported that Moscow is earning as much as $150 million a day in extra budget revenue from oil sales. It could receive nearly 5 billion in overall additional revenues by the end of March. I know you wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging the department to ensure any sale of Russian energy giant Lukoil's international assets permanently cut Moscow's leadership out of the deal. Can that be done?
Rep. Pfluger: I pressed the Biden administration for four years to do more on the sanctions against Russia, to not allow those revenues to go directly into their coffers, which feed their war machine and the chaos that is going on between Russia and Ukraine. In the divestment of Lukoil, specifically, what we are urging, and Secretary Bessent is all over this, but we want to make sure that when those assets are divested, that they don't just once again be resold back into Russian hands in the form of some other named company, which has happened previously, and obviously they would try to do it again. So, the administration is taking the right steps. We don't want the revenues to go to Russia, and the divestment of Lukoil should not just be recycled once again into their hands. We need to make sure that those revenues are cut off.
Maria Bartiromo: There's also the cost to American citizens as oil and gas prices go higher, which is colliding with your efforts to rein in inflation going into the midterm elections. How are you going to deal with that?
Rep. Pfluger: When you look at oil futures, they seem to suggest the stability is below $90-$80, that it's more reasonable. I mean, you and I have talked about that $65 to $85 band, where it's reasonable to produce, and it's also a good trade-off for the economy and gas prices. So, I think the hope is that this is a temporary problem. And the supply right now is not the issue. It's the movement of that supply, specifically out of the Arabian Gulf. I have flown missions in the F-22 over the Strait of Hormuz. It's a very strategic place. It's a very difficult place. Obviously, the Iranian regime is still threatening the Strait. Not just naval assets getting in and out, but also commercial ships and oil tankers, natural gas tankers that are moving in and out are threatened, and I think that's the issue right now.
