excalibur
Diamond Member
- Mar 19, 2015
- 18,138
- 34,343
- 2,290
The Bizarro World of Biden and his cohorts on energy are outright stupid and deliberately so.
Note the part about Guyana and its massive oil finds.
The Republic dies with the propagandists in the MSM ignoring so much wrong with the Biden administration.
www.heritage.org
Note the part about Guyana and its massive oil finds.
The Republic dies with the propagandists in the MSM ignoring so much wrong with the Biden administration.
...
It reveals yet again the incoherent inconsistencies of the Biden administration with respect to energy policies. Among them:
- Tacitly compromising with the Maduro regime on oil production (although it directly benefits from the state-owned oil industry), while condemning Russia’s weaponization of its energy supply and seeking to minimize Russia’s ability to profit from energy production.
- Turning a blind eye to the greenhouse gas emissions from Venezuelan oil production while banning federal financial and technical assistance for similar projects in other countries—on the basis of greenhouse gas emissions. The Wall Street Journal reminded readers of the Biden administration’s cold shoulder last year for pro-American, oil-rich Guyana’s seeking aid to develop its resources, while China fills America’s void.
- Allowing transactions to go through for Venezuela’s oil production, while aggressively pushing regulations across the U.S. financial sector to divert private capital away from the oil sector.
- Preferring oil imports over new production of abundant domestic oil resources. Oil from Venezuela certainly won’t strengthen American energy security in the long run, with Maduro being no friend of the U.S.
Regardless of the muddled messages, the administration went ahead anyway with sanctions relief. It entails two licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control granted to Chevron. They allow Chevron and its subsidiaries to complete the financial transactions necessary for oil production involving the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. Another license authorizes transactions between the regime and four other U.S. firms.
On Tuesday, Venezuela’s top Chevron executive met with petroleum minister Tareck El Aissami, a regime power-player closely tied to Iran, to announce new joint ventures and renewed oil production.
Venezuelan law limits production to state or joint ventures, meaning newly unfrozen U.S. capital to rebuild production will have to flow to the regime-controlled state oil giant, even if the license purportedly prohibits certain payments to the Venezuelan state. Maduro and his cronies have embezzled billions from Petroleos de Venezuela in the past decade.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is enabling an additional deal between the Maduro regime, a sector of the opposition, and the U.N. to unfreeze $3 billion in foreign bank accounts, but these could be managed by the regime itself, according to its representative in Mexico City.
While the administration attempts to justify the moves with the pretext of “concrete steps” toward democracy in Venezuela, the Maduro regime repeatedly uses opposition talks to buy itself time and concessions, and Biden knows it.
...
Venezuela Is Bizarre Piece of Biden’s Incoherent Energy Policy Puzzle
Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Biden administration announced an easing of sanctions on Venezuela. With the midterm elections safely behind President Joe Biden, the administration likely hoped that Americans would be too busy finishing their turkey dinners to notice the...
www.heritage.org
