Putin's Energy War Failed, But We Are 'Not Out Of The Woods' Says U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary

Washington D.C./01.03.23/Turan:  The Biden Administration on Tuesday defended its response to Russia's energy blackmail in Europe and the war in Ukraine, however remained reluctant to declare total victory over Putin's energy war, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"... We are not out of the woods," U.S. deputy Energy secretary David Turk told a briefing at the Washington Foreign Press Center in response to TURAN's questions.

"I feel really good about the progress that we’ve made in 2022, which was a very, very difficult, challenging year in terms of the dynamics we were all dealing with," Deputy Secretary said recalling that the Department of Energy coordinated international collective actions and marshalled U.S. resources to stabilize global energy markets, assess risks and vulnerabilities to Ukraine’s energy system, and reduce nuclear risks. Washington has been committed to supporting European allies while also ensuring sufficient energy supplies at home.

However, he went on to elaborate that there’s still volatility, "whether you look in the oil markets, whether you look with other markets out there."

"We’ve got to make sure we’ve got diverse, reliable supply chains when it comes to critical minerals and the processing of those critical minerals and making sure that we can rely on that day-in and day-out, year-in and year-out.  So we’ve got a lot of work to do on that front," Turk said.

In the meantime, he added, it’s going to require an awful lot of true partnership: "I think that’s the spirit in which I feel like our country is trying to engage with other countries going forward. And I think what countries are seeing is who are their true partners, who are their partners in times of need, who are the partners that they can rely upon for the long haul."

According to the deputy secretary, a lot of countries are looking at Russia and distrusting that there’s a true partnership approach there, at least with the current regime in Russia.

And so those who want to work together and want to have mutually supportive true partnerships, "there’s a group of countries that I think are eager for those kinds of relationships and discussion," he said, adding "what can’t happen is what Germany and others in Europe did previously, is rely on one country, a dictator, a dictatorship that is not a true partner, and Europe had some real repercussions from that."

The deputy secretary concluded, "There’s a lot of lessons learned coming from that, and I think there’s lessons learned – leaders are looking across the board at their own energy security, who are their true partners out there.  And I think that’s what we need to consolidate, we need to focus on in 2023, and build the clean energy, the reliable energy, the affordable energy, the universal electricity access that we need for the future."

Alex Raufoglu