MW Senate pushes Russia tariffs that could jack up energy prices for American consumers

By Chris Matthews

Trump may have finally met a tariff he doesn't like

Americans may soon feel the pinch at the pump and on their utility bills, even as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans remain laser focused on boosting U.S. energy production.

That's because a new bill gaining steam in the Senate could place severe tariffs on any country that imports oil (CL00) (BRN00), uranium and other energy products from Russia, with the potential for disrupting global energy markets and raising prices on everything from gasoline to electricity.

The bill's main champion, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, has called the legislation "the most draconian bill I've ever seen in my life in the Senate," and it aims to punish Russia for its refusal to agree to a ceasefire in its ongoing war with Ukraine.

The legislation, known as the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, would impose a sweeping set of penalties on Russia's energy and financial sectors. It includes a 500% tariff on all Russian-origin oil, gas, uranium and petrochemical imports - effectively banning them - and goes further by targeting other countries that continue to do business with Russian energy firms.

Any nation that buys Russian oil or uranium could see its exports hit with the same 500% tariff, a move analysts say is designed to force global disengagement from Russian energy. Major U.S. trading partners that import energy from Russia include China, India, South Korea and Turkey.

While the bill is framed as a tool to choke off funding for Russia's war effort, its global reach could backfire on American households. Analysts say that sanctions of this scale will lead to higher prices for energy, most severely felt in Europe, but which would impact the U.S. as well.

The biggest risk of an energy supply shock in the coming months "would be a no-holds-barred move by the U.S. to throttle Russian oil exports," wrote TS Lombard analyst Christopher Granville, in a Wednesday note to clients.

"If Trump went for such sanctions... oil prices would spike as in 2022," he added, noting that this would cause the Russians to "throw everything possible into collapsing the Ukrainian front before the squeeze on their oil rents threatened domestic economic and social stability."

He called these stepped-up sanctions "a roll of the dice" with unpredictable consequences for the war abroad and energy prices around the globe.

Former President Joe Biden, a strong defender of Ukraine, even shied away from the sort of tariffs contemplated in the Senate bill, for domestic political reasons.

Biden instead imposed a so-called price cap for Russian oil exports, which sanctioned companies that sold Russian oil at prices of more than $60 per barrel, but the policy didn't achieve its goal of pinching revenues that have fueled the Russian war effort.

The price-cap mechanism was the product of "U.S. eagerness to keep Russian oil flowing to prevent a rise in gasoline prices," according to a recent report authored by Nicholas Fenton, analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank.

Russia did this in part by cultivating customers in markets like India and China, which refused to participate in sanctions against Russia. The Senate bill would target such countries with 500% tariffs on exports to the U.S. if they continued to buy Russian energy.

There remain mixed messages as to what, if anything, the president plans to do to coerce Russia into a ceasefire agreement that could jumpstart serious peace talks.

The White House press secretary told reporters Tuesday that Trump has kept sanctions "as a tool in his toolbox if necessary, but I think the Senate and everyone on Capitol Hill respects the president is the commander-in-chief for a reason."

Trump said on Truth Social that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, and that "it was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace."

He then posted a recent article by Marc Thiessen, former speechwriter to then-President George W. Bush, which made the argument that the Graham legislation "would give Trump the power to effectively drive Russian energy sales from the global market," while "providing Trump with strong bipartisan backing as he tries, one last time, to persuade Putin" to end the war.

Analysts say that if the bill were to be brought to the floor of the Senate, it would likely not be until after Congress passes Trump's sweeping tax-and-spending legislation.

"The White House plainly does not want Congress to force its hand and compel sanctions," wrote Henrietta Treyz, economic policy analyst at Veda Partners, in a client note. The Trump administration "would prefer to hold off on sanctions until after the reconciliation package passes."

-Chris Matthews

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June 04, 2025 16:36 ET (20:36 GMT)

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