Closing the Keystone Pipeline and courting authoritarian regimes.
This isn’t rocket science: gas prices are hitting astronomical new heights every day because Old Joe Biden closed the Keystone Pipeline, ended our energy independence, and forced us to rely on supplies of Russian oil that have become problematic in all kinds of ways with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet even as the crisis intensifies, Biden’s handlers refuse to reverse course and restore America’s own oil supplies; instead, it is courting authoritarian regimes, as if paying Russia for oil wasn’t enough financing of tyranny already. Next in line: Venezuela.
First came the Islamic Republic of Iran. On Wednesday, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle asked Transportation Secretary Pete “Mr. Mom ” Buttigieg if Biden would consider “working something out with Iran” for oil. Buttigieg wouldn’t rule out that possibility: “Look, the president has said that all options are on the table. But we also need to make sure we’re not galloping after permanent solutions to immediate short term problems where more strategic and tactical actions in the short term could make a difference.”
But the “Death to America”-chanting mullahs aren’t enough. Fox News reported Sunday that “several senior Biden administration officials from the White House and State Department traveled to Venezuela on Saturday to meet with the Russian ally as Moscow’s economy begins to crater under the weight of sanctions, according to a report.” The idea is to entice the brutal hard-Left regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro away from Moscow’s embrace. The U.S. used to be Venezuela’s biggest customer for its oil exports, but the Trump administration put sanctions on those exports in view of the Venezuelan regime’s tyrannical behavior and election fraud.
But for Biden’s handlers, that sort of thing is no problem, as is clear from the fact that the administration’s trip to Venezuela was “the highest-profile one to Venezuela from American officials in years.” The agenda is obvious: “Some in the U.S. are considering Venezuelan oil as a possible substitute to Russian imports, as more American politicians say the U.S. needs to end its reliance on Russian oil, which could help finance Putin’s war.” Maduro opened the door to this himself on Thursday, saying : “Here lies the oil of Venezuela, which is available for whomever wants to produce and buy it, be it an investor from Asia, Europe or the United States.”
It’s astonishing that we have an administration that would rather buy oil from two regimes that terrorize their own people than take the steps that would restore the energy independence the United States enjoyed under the Trump administration. This is partly because the “adults” who are back in charge now are so spiteful, hateful, and immature that they must do the opposite of whatever Trump did, no matter how well it worked and how ill-advised the alternative. Biden’s handlers also have to please the green energy advocates who form such an important part of their base and who apparently don’t mind the environmental damage that results from the production of oil if it takes place in far-off countries and isn’t on CNN.
Imagine if Biden’s handlers reversed course, reopened the Keystone Pipeline, and worked to restore America’s energy independence. The economy would improve, gas prices would go down, and we would be free of potentially dangerous entanglements with the likes of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.
What’s the downside, apart from a few angry green energy advocates? It’s tempting to think that Biden’s handlers are behaving in a stupid and short-sighted way in all this, but they’re actually anything but stupid, and that leaves only one alternative: their America-Last priorities are on full display here. Biden’s handlers appear to be so committed to socialist internationalism that they would rather see corrupt, authoritarian regimes in other countries benefit than see the American people relieved from their increasingly severe economic plight.
If we shift from Russian oil to Iranian and Venezuelan oil, we will no longer be financing the invasion of Ukraine, which would be a fine thing, but it is unlikely that these two inveterately hostile regimes will give us a deal that would lead to a drop in fuel prices. Why should they? When the mullahs chant “Death to America,” they’re not just mouthing empty words; if Biden’s handlers hand them a sword, they will happily plunge it into our vitals. Venezuela is unlikely to be more friendly. Once again, 2022 and 2024 can’t come fast enough.
GOP Congressman’s Bill Would Prevent Biden from Negotiating with Terrorists for Oil Imports
The oil tanker, Stena Impero seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is anchored at Bandar Abbas harbour on July 20, 2019 in Bandar Abbas, Iran. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said Wednesday that he introduced the No Oil From Terrorists Act to prevent President Biden from negotiating with terrorists for oil imports when the United States could produce its own oil.previously reported , the Biden administration has been in talks with Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran about supplying the United States with oil.
This is maddening, as you describe it, but you gotta go back in time a little bit. Remember that the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by Barack Obama was a terrible deal. It gave pallets of cash to Iran to try to prevent them from building nuclear weapons, but instead, it did the opposite.
Banks said there’s a lot the United States can do to help Ukraine that it’s not doing.
American Oil Drillers: Democrat Policies Blocking Energy Production AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File 4:24
Oil drillers say they are working to fill the recent void in the oil market but are hampered by Democrat policies.
While gas prices rose about one dollar before the run-up to the Ukrainian war and 70 cents since the invasion of Ukraine, President Biden has blamed the oil industry for not producing enough oil to shore up the oil crisis from the war. He claims American drillers are not utilizing 9,000 leases on private land.
But American shale drillers have pushed back by suggesting Biden’s supply chain woes and woke private, and public investment strategies have dramatically slowed swift production.
“Getting lenders to choke off money to fossil fuel companies is the next needed move for the industry to address the material risks that the coal, oil and gas industry faces,” Leslie Samuelrich, president at investment advisory firm Green Century Capital Management, said back April about industry’s future lending decisions.
Samuelrich’s analysis has come true, which is greatly reducing the feasibility of new oil projects on the reported 9,000 private land leases.
“Ten years ago, the ‘cost of capital’ for developing oil and gas as compared to renewable projects was pretty much the same, falling consistently between 8% and 10%. But not anymore,” Bloomberg reported in November. Now the cost of capital is reportedly 20 percent for long-cycle developments.
Biden’s attack on private financing is only one angle of assault. In August, a Biden changed global bank financing rules that make it more difficult for drillers to find investors. The policy is intended to accelerate renewable energy investment rather than fossil fuel investment, thereby greatly defunding oil production.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that oil drillers believe the “flight of capital from the fossil-fuel industry in recent years has left U.S. oil patches without enough fracking equipment to bring a ton of new wells online, and that a resurgence of go-go drilling would deplete companies’ most valuable drilling locations”:
Lenders—who have become more wary of funding oil-related ventures as environmental, social and governance ideas catch on in financial circles—are still unwilling to give money to most of the nation’s crop of oil-field service companies, or to smaller oil producers that want to expand their operations, executives and analysts said. That has left small but instrumental players short of the financing they need to repair fracking equipment sidelined during the start of the pandemic, or invest in building drill bits, drilling rigs and blowout preventers.
Data suggests the drillers are correct. American oil production is down drastically from 2019 before the pandemic. In 2022, oil production is 12 million barrels or 8 percent less than in 2019.
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“They’ve already got all of their available equipment out there already,” Richard Spears, vice president at energy consulting firm Spears & Associates Inc., told the Journal . “The constraint on growth is going to be, where do you get another [fracking] truck?”
Biden also has a third approach to damaging the American oil industry. Biden has nominated Sarah Bloom Raskin to the Fed. It is well known Raskin expressed interest in driving up financing costs for fossil fuels. In a New York Times op-ed from 2020, Raskin dubbed the oil industry as “dying” and suggested the Fed should not support the oil drilling.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) told Breitbart News that Raskin is “trying to kill an essential industry to the world economy by nominating people for the Federal Reserve that will use fiduciary rules to unemploy 12.5 percent of the state, and give Russia more leverage over the rest of the world.”
Meanwhile, the price of gas is skyrocketing. On Wednesday, gas prices hit a record high for the third consecutive day. Rising nearly 60 cents in one week, the national average price of gas is $4.252, up more than seven cents overnight ($4.173) and 14 cents in two days ($4.104) – all record-setting prices.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø
W.H. Nat’l Economic Council Head: Ukraine Crisis Shows We Need ‘True Energy Independence’ by ‘Reducing Our Dependence on Fossil Fuels’ 1:49
On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN Newsroom,” White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese argued that the situation in Ukraine underscores the need for “true energy independence, and that’s about reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.” And that we have to decrease dependence on oil and gas “so that we and our allies, like those in Europe” aren’t as vulnerable to changes in the global price of oil.
Deese stated that the ban on importing Russian oil “will have an impact” on gas prices. And “what we’re focused on is trying to make sure that we can bring — in the short term — supply of oil and gas globally, do everything we can to ensure adequate supply. But also keep an eye on the long term, which is this crisis should underscore how important it is for all of us to achieve true energy independence, and that’s about reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. So, over the long term, the kinds of steps we can take here domestically to be less reliant on oil and on gas are really important.”
He later added that “production in the United States is increasing. It’s increasing to record levels. And you’ve heard the CEOs of the companies that you mentioned saying that they’re doing everything they can to increase production in response to the price. So, in the short term, we expect and we are seeing that production increase by about 700,000 barrels a day in the United States. Over the long term, what we need to do is actually reduce our dependence on oil and gas altogether so that we and our allies, like those in Europe, are not as susceptible to global commodity price moves like we’re seeing now.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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