Chart: How much oil does the US actually import from Russia?

Russia’s war on Ukraine has us all thinking more than we usually do about where our energy comes from, especially our oil and gas. The U.S. is the world’s biggest oil producer, but it’s also the world’s biggest oil consumer. It imports crude oil and petroleum products from around the world — and the third-biggest source of those imports last year was Russia.

The U.S. gets most of its imported oil from its two immediate neighbors: In 2021, more than 51 percent came from Canada and more than 8 percent from Mexico. Russia came in third at just under 8 percent.

That will now change, thanks to President Biden’s move on Tuesday to ban U.S. imports of Russian oil and gas. For the majority of Americans, the most immediate impact will be felt at the gasoline pump, where already-high prices are expected to soar even higher. Hawaii is likely to get hit harder by the embargo than other states. In addition to using petroleum for transportation, the Aloha State is uniquely dependent on oil for electricity, as Canary recently reported, and in recent years it imported about one-third of its oil from Russia. Hawaiian leaders are now scrambling to figure out how to keep oil supplies flowing, even while the state continues its aggressive push to switch from fossil fuels to clean energy.

From Hawaii to Europe to the rest of the world, energy security is back at the top of the agenda. Some are using the current crisis to push for more drilling and fracking, but as host Brandon Hurlbut put it this week on Canary’s Political Climate podcast, ​“We are never going to find energy security at the bottom of a well.” The right pathway to long-term energy security is clean energy. Investments and policy support for expanding clean technologies such as EVs and heat pumps can get us headed in the right direction.