Rubio plan could wipe out jobs without deterring Putin

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio recently introduced a bill that would impose severe sanctions on Russia if the Kremlin continues to meddle in American elections.

The senator certainly means well. But the sanctions are so broad that they’d damage America’s economy — perhaps even more so than Russia’s. Our oil and natural gas industry, which supports jobs for hundreds of thousands of Floridians, would bear the brunt of this self-inflicted damage.

Let’s hope Rubio is willing to return to the drawing board and design a sanctions package that pummels Vladimir Putin — not Floridians from Pensacola to Palm Beach.

Rubio’s bill, which he is co-sponsoring with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., is known as the Deter Act — short for the Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines Act. It would require the Treasury Department to impose severe sanctions on Russia if the U.S. director of National Intelligence detects any election meddling.

The Deter Act targets a host of key Russian industries — especially the oil and gas sector. The sanctions would force any American firms involved in joint energy ventures with Russian companies to exit those projects.

American companies that manufacture pipeline equipment, for example, wouldn’t be able to work on projects with even minimal Russian involvement. Forbidding joint Russian-American energy ventures would cost the American energy sector up to $100 billion over the next decade, according to Richard Sawaya of the National Foreign Trade Council.

Take ExxonMobil’s joint venture with Rosneft, a government-owned Russian oil company. The project, known as Sakhalin 1, could extract more than 2 billion barrels of oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from under the Pacific Ocean off Russia’s eastern shore. Current sanctions on Russia have not affected the project. But if the Deter Act becomes law, Exxon may have to abandon the project and forego billions in revenue — money that could otherwise be invested in the American economy.

The sanctions wouldn’t simply prohibit American companies from operating within Russia. They would jeopardize any project — no matter its location — if it involves Russian companies or passes through Russian territory. Russian businesses could deliberately invest in offshore leases or pipelines in close proximity to U.S. drillers to force Americans to abandon projects under development.

The consequences of killing American energy projects would reverberate throughout Florida’s economy.

Thanks to fracking and increased offshore drilling, the United States is now the global leader in oil and natural gas production. The glut of natural gas, both here in America and abroad, has driven down prices. In 2017, Florida’s power plants paid $4.31, on average, per 1,000 cubic feet of gas. A decade earlier, the same amount of natural gas cost more than $9. If American companies are blocked from embarking on new energy ventures, production would eventually drop and prices may spike once again. That means higher electric bills for Floridians.

The Deter Act could also kill jobs. The oil and natural gas industry supports more than 250,000 Florida jobs — many of which would be lost if energy firms are forced to pull out of projects.

Worst of all, there’s no evidence that such sanctions would actually deter meddling.

The United States and its allies levied sanctions on Russia in 2014 for invading Crimea. Russian hackers responded by infiltrating German, Dutch, Ukrainian and Finnish databases. And of course, they infamously attempted to influence the U.S. 2016 election.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin seems to not care about his people’s suffering — he only worries about himself and his circle of cronies. So another round of wide-ranging sanctions would wipe out American jobs without deterring the dictator. In fact, by enabling Russian firms to displace American companies, the Kremlin might even welcome the Deter Act.

So what can Congress do to counter Russian aggression without hurting Americans? One solution is to turn to a more narrow set of sanctions introduced last year. The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017, which has yet to be fully implemented, would make exceptions for certain energy export pipelines and railways that cross Russia and only affect future oil projects.

It’s time for Congress to find a more targeted way to push back against Russian aggression.

Jennifer Carroll served as the 18th lieutenant governor of Florida.