US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose new energy-related sanctions on Russia could backfire by hurting American electricity consumers.
The main target of sanctions legislation proposed by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) — which Trump said this week he could support if Moscow doesn’t make progress on a peace deal with Kyiv in the next 50 days — is buyers of Russian crude oil, primarily China and India. Because the global oil market is already well-supplied, a further reduction in Russian oil exports could probably be carried out without disrupting US gasoline prices too severely.
But the legislation also targets nuclear fuel, of which Russia is the world’s leading exporter. Graham’s bill would prohibit the import of Russian uranium into the US, which would have “underappreciated repercussions” for the US power sector, analysts at the research firm Capstone wrote in a note. While the move could help North American uranium mining companies like Cameco Corporation, it would likely lead to higher power prices from nuclear-reliant US utilities like Duke, Vistra, and Southern Company, Capstone warned.
