President Joe Biden’s policy of restricting American oil production is paying huge dividends for Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s war machine. Japan announced on April 2 a new agreement to purchase prodigious amounts of oil from Russia , even though it would rather purchase the oil from the United States.

With the announcement, Japan will purchase 10% of its national oil consumption from Russia. Similarly, India and other nations have ramped up their Russian oil purchases, adding an avalanche of new funding for Putin’s war effort . In just three short years, America has gone from energy dominance to energy supplicant. As a result, the American economy, the people of Ukraine, and the world geopolitical order are experiencing the deadly impacts of Biden’s anti-American energy policy.

The Biden administration repeatedly cites climate change to justify its decisions blocking new American oil projects and imposing punitive new restrictions on existing oil projects. Apparently, the administration naively believes Japan, India, and other nations will feel compelled to install industrial wind infrastructure as a result of reductions in U.S. oil production rather than simply purchase more oil from Russia and other suppliers.

Since taking office, Biden has blocked production in bountiful oil fields off the coast of Louisiana. The Biden administration has blocked oil production in lucrative oil fields in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, an area designated by Congress specifically for the production of oil. The Biden administration has ground to a halt lease sales on oil-rich federal lands throughout the Western U.S. To top it off, The Biden administration has imposed all sorts of new regulatory impediments on oil production that it cannot shut down.

We can see the results of these impediments when we look at the trajectory of American oil production under Biden versus the Trump administration. In December 2016, the month before Trump took office, U.S. oil production was at 8.8 million barrels per day. By December 2017, production jumped more than 10% to 9.9 million barrels per day. By December 2018, production rose to 11.9 million barrels per day. By December 2019, production rose to 12.9 million barrels per day. That’s a 47% increase in just three years. Production would have continued increasing if not for the global economic downturn caused by COVID. Yet even with COVID economic shutdowns, U.S. oil production was at 11.1 million barrels per day in December 2020.

Since Biden took office, COVID has receded, and U.S. oil production should be back surpassing pre-COVID numbers. That, however, has not been the case. U.S. oil production in 2021, post-COVID, was merely 11.6 million barrels per day. In December 2022, production was just 12.1 million barrels per day. U.S. oil production still remains well below pre-pandemic oil production under Trump.

It is not like there would be limited markets for U.S. oil producers if the Biden administration were to remove the shackles. Japan, for example, has been one of the world’s most vigorous supporters of Ukraine. Given a choice, the Japanese would prefer to buy oil from American producers. Instead, with all the restrictions Biden has imposed on U.S. oil production, Japan is being forced to buy oil from Russia, and at very high prices. That money is going directly to Russia’s war machine, directly causing Ukrainian deaths.

India and other nations are being driven into the Russian orbit, as well. The Biden administration may believe in a fairy-tale world where nation after nation will join them in abandoning oil and conventional energy. In the real world, however, that is not happening. Nations that previously imported American oil now must import oil from Russia, Venezuela, Iran, and other hostile nations. With their economies and living standards now dependent on America’s enemies, nations caught in the middle will now be hesitant to irritate America’s enemies and indifferent to American geopolitical overtures. Russia’s international influence, as well as China’s, Iran’s, and Venezuela’s, will continue to grow at America’s expense.

The ultimate insult is now coming from Saudi Arabia. Biden frequently begs Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production. Yet, on April 3, Saudi Arabia announced it would cut its production in response to Biden’s 2022 release of oil from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The end result of Biden’s move is that oil prices remain extremely high, the U.S. has less oil in its emergency reserves, and Russia is laughing all the way to the bank while selling oil at higher prices.

Biden can talk tough about Russia all he wants, but his energy policy is one of the single greatest factors empowering the Russian war machine to take Ukrainian lives.

James Taylor is president of the Heartland Institute.