Elon Musk: US needs to increase oil, gas production ‘immediately’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk 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 (R-S.C.) tweeted in response.

“America is funding Russia’s war by buying Russian oil and gas rather than producing our own,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) also tweeted.

The tweets come against the backdrop of a bipartisan group of lawmakers signaling support for a ban on oil and energy imports from Russia. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Thursday that while she did not want the prices of gas to go up, she did support blocking oil imports.

“I’m all for that — ban it,” the Speaker said. “Ban the oil coming from Russia.”

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Thursday proposed legislation to ban energy imports from Russia.

“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 said on Friday that the Biden administration was weighing cutting down on Russian oil imports to the United States while expressing concern over the likelihood of gas prices rising.

“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.”