We need only look at our backyard to understand why Russian President Vladimir Putin indulged post-Cold War expansionism that could ignite World War III.

As innocent men, women and children die in Ukraine, President Joe Biden thinks he can dissuade Putin with economic sanctions that won’t faze him. They won’t offset the damage Biden has done in one year bolstering Putin’s confidence, ego, aspirations and financial coffers.

On the day Biden took office, he empowered Putin by making him an oil baron increasingly responsible for supplying a growing share the world’s energy needs. Biden’s first order of business was shutting down North America’s Keystone XL Pipeline, a move so weak even Canada’s Prime Minister Justin “Black Face” Trudeau opposed it.

After shutting down a major North American crude conduit, Biden lifted U.S. sanctions on a pipeline under the Baltic Sea for the sale and transport of Russian gas to Germany.

Since assuming office, Biden has taken every opportunity to reduce North America’s ability to supply the world with energy and increase dependency on Russia. Even this month, Biden declared a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling on federal lands.

The Department of Energy reports imports of Russian oil into the United States doubled in 2021 to the highest level in a decade. Consumers feel it at the pumps as they pay to enrich Putin’s evil empire.

Countries with free-flowing energy are independent and strong. Those without it out are dependent and weak. By handing Russia a greater demand for its oil, Biden strengthened Putin. He told the dictator our policies are no longer America and American allies first.

Biden restored our country’s dependence on Russia after years of legislators and Gov. Jared Polis discouraging oil and gas production in Colorado – which ranks fifth among states for fossil fuel production.

Biden, Polis, and others obstruct domestic oil and gas to appease environmental activists. They allow this demographic to think we might save the planet from climate change – despite the fact our climate has always and forever changed – by reducing energy production in Colorado and other regions of the United States.

They could not be more naive. Energy producers in Colorado, Texas, North Dakota, Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and other states blessed with massive fossil fuel deposits operate under strict state and federal environmental regulations.

By curtailing that production, and handing the market to Putin and other despots, we relinquish our ability to protect the environment. Putin, as he expands his energy-selling empire, has no concern for the environment, “global warming,” climate change, or any of the concerns that work their way from Hollywood and Ivy League cocktail circuits into our state capitols, Congress and the White House.

“Putin knows responsibly produced North American energy reduces revenues for his war machine,” wrote Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry.

“That’s why he said in 2013 that shale is a danger and must be stopped, and why NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen announced in 2014 the defense consortium had intelligence Putin was funding anti-fossil fuel environmental groups (which Hillary Clinton herself confirmed in the run-up to the 2016 election).”

To Putin, oil and gas mean more than fuel for structures and cars. To him, commodities determine who rules the world. The United States had achieved energy independence, which was good for the free world. By giving it up, we encourage Putin to expand his reign.

Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board