> So why did it make sense for USA to restrict oil pipeline build and reduce oil drilling permits in past 18 months?

Because "Russia is going to do something stupid" wasn't on the radar then.

Oil leases have been canceled by the Federal government since the Ukrainian invasion https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/politics/interior-gas-leases-...

>Due to lack of industry interest in leasing in the area, the Department will not move forward with the proposed Cook Inlet [Outer Continental Shelf] oil and gas lease sale 258," Schwartz said.

You're pushing a bad faith argument

And you are taking what politicians say on faith. Here's a view from the other side: Critics, including U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), were quick to blast the decision.

“Citing a ‘lack of industry interest’ is nothing more than fantasy from an administration that shuns U.S. energy production,” she said in a statement to CBS News. “Cook Inlet is the sole source of the natural gas that more than 400,000 people in Southcentral Alaska — and significant military bases that are critical to our national security — depend on. I can say with full certainty, based on conversations as recently as last night, that Alaska’s industry does have interest in lease sales in Cook Inlet. To claim otherwise is simply false, not to mention stunningly short-sighted.”

https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/business/why-did-biden-...