Times Square billboard urges Biden to reject Russian oil amid war with Ukraine
Ad part of seven-figure campaign by Job Creators Network criticizing President Biden's policies
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FIRST ON FOX: A conservative nonprofit on Tuesday announced a new billboard ad in New York City's Times Square, urging President Biden to reject oil from Russia amid the country's invasion in Ukraine.
"Hey Vlad. Screw You!" the billboard states. "Nyet to Russian Oil. Time for American oil. Drill more, pay less. C’mon Joe. This ain’t hard."
Job Creators Network Times Square ad (JCN)
Biden has received criticism for his decisions to cancel construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have delivered oil from Canada into the United States, and for his later decision to waive sanctions of Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would deliver gas from Russia to Germany.
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Biden announced new sanctions against the pipeline's owners last week amid the Ukraine crisis.
E.ON, Europe's largest operator of energy networks, rejected demands to shut down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline as part of sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine, the company told Rheinische Post newspaper on Monday. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky (AP Newsroom)
The ad comes from the Job Creators Network (JCN), a nonprofit organized by Home Depot co-founder and billionaire Bernard Marcus, that describes itself as the "voice of Main Street," arguing that government red tape gets "in the way of the economic freedom that helped make this country prosperous."
Many Republicans have argued that Biden's decisions have made the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil, which has played a role in higher prices at the gas pump and in the grocery store.
Alfredo Ortiz, JCN president and CEO, told FOX Business that the billboard is "part of an ongoing [seven]-figure campaign to call out Joe Biden for his failed policies and leadership."
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"[W]ith each drop of oil, we buy from the Russians, we are helping to finance Putin’s war on the Ukraine, and his march to crush freedom and democracy in Europe," Ortiz said in a statement. "We must declare the radical left's ‘Green New Deal’ thinking dead here in the U.S. once and for all. Brent crude oil prices have gone from $20 per barrel in April 2020, to just shy of $100 per barrel, two years later – a fivefold increase."
A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp's planned Keystone XL oil pipeline in Gascoyne, North Dakota, Jan. 25, 2017. (Reuters/Terray Sylvester)
He added that rising gas prices have "created havoc on the U.S. economy leading to the highest inflation numbers we have seen in 40 years," hurting average Americans and "30 million small business owners that have had to endure ineffective lockdowns and mandates, labor shortages and supply chain issues."
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"In order to start reversing the damage done, we urge Biden to reverse course on his socialist energy policies that have put us in this mess we are facing today," Ortiz said. "…Produce more, pay less."