Is a “Damp Squib” Enough?

I see that Ross Clark’s take on the EU agreement about Russian oil imports from his piece in The Spectator is fairly close to mine:

The agreement only really tries to bring an end to oil imports which arrive from Russia by ship. Imports via pipeline – which account for a quarter of the total – will be exempt. This is to ensure the continuation of supplies to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, which are highly dependent on the pipelines – Slovakia obtains virtually all its oil in this way. The loudest whelp of joy from Monday night’s negotiations came from Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban, who boasted on Facebook that Hungary would be exempt from the embargo. It isn’t just Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, either – Poland and Germany will be allowed to continue to draw oil from Russian pipelines, although they have said they will try to stop doing this by the end of the year. Assuming they do meet this deadline, the best that can be hoped for is that by this time next year EU oil imports from Russia will be down by 90 per cent on pre-invasion levels – a long way from a complete cessation.

Meanwhile, gas continues to flow to Europe from Russia, and there is little hope of arresting this trade in the near-future – even if Germany is hurriedly building terminals so it can import liquified natural gas from Qatar and elsewhere. The EU has not yet begun trying to negotiate a cessation of gas imports, but when it does this is unlikely to end any more satisfactorily. There will be more horse-trading, more concessions, more get-out clauses and more drawn-out deadlines.

He characterizes the agreement as a “damp squib”. For those of you not up on your British-ese, a squib is a firecracker. While the Europeans delay and make promises, it gives the Russians plenty of time to line up new customers. China and India are very big countries, the Chinese and Indians have good eyes for bargains and the increasing price of oil allows the Russians to offer a pretty good bargain without losing much by it.

If we were genuinely serious about hurting Russia economically we would be doing everything in our power to bring the price of oil down including pumping as much of it as we could. Since that objective sounds well-aligned with the goal of reducing the bite of inflation for Americans, it does make me wonder why the Biden Administration isn’t embracing it. Who’s running the show?