As bad, sure, but not worse — it couldn't be
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“How stupid is the old man? This estupido.”
Biden’s Oil Deal With Venezuela is Worse Than You Think
Rick Moran:
“…That Biden would allow oil to flow from a socialist dictator like Nicolás Maduro isn’t shocking. The administration has made a nasty habit of dealing with dictators while leaving our friends high and dry. Such is the case with tiny Guyana, which was recently discovered to be sitting on an ocean of crude oil. One of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, Guyana would benefit enormously from U.S. expertise and loans.
But that’s not going to happen.”
It looked like a 21st-century fairy tale: wealth creation, low-impact energy production, environmentally careful investors and solar development all in a democracy aligned with the U.S. In a March interview with Guyana’s Stabroek News, then-IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone spoke about the auspicious outlook: IDB oversight and transparency was poised to assist in producing real benefits for the nation rather than what has occurred under “Middle Eastern and African models that have actually seen development stalled with the new resources and democracy trampled.”
The U.S. vetoed the loan. Its reasoning was based on August 2021 Treasury “guidance on fossil fuel energy at the multilateral development banks,” which says that the U.S. will “promote ending international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy.” After two years of working with the IDB to ensure proper due diligence, the company had to go back to the drawing board.
Guyana oil is the future. Right now, Europe and the U.S. are facing an energy shortage this winter and Venezuela’s crude supplies are needed to prevent voters in the west from getting angry at politicians because their homes are cold and their cars won’t run for lack of gasoline. So, all of a sudden, the earth is no longer in imminent danger of burning up and Maduro’s heavy-handed oppression doesn’t look too bad.
“This Venezuelan deal, that’s a good example of the desperation that this administration is dealing with,” said Harold Hamm, the shale billionaire who founded Continental Resources and previously advised Trump on energy policy.
Hamm points to the extraordinarily short-sighted decisions of the Biden administration that virtually shut down the shale industry just as the price of fuel was skyrocketing and driving the rate of inflation.
“They know what they did. They know they took the federal lands off the table,” Hamm said. “They know better and shame on them . . . They want to put oil and gas out of business.” . . .
“You have to understand where diesel comes from, and you can’t make it out of tar,” he said, in a reference to Venezuela’s ultra-heavy bituminous oil, which needs to be blended with lighter grades and requires extensive refining. . . .
Guyana should feel singled out, the Biden policy is to reward its enemies and punish all its allies: In February of this year, Biden also killed a natural gas pipeline from Israel to Europe.
Biden's decision — reportedly coordinated with Turkey but reached without consulting Israel, Greece or Cyprus, the main countries involved in the project — undercuts three of the strongest American allies in the Mediterranean region.
EastMed's cancellation — variously described as a "disastrous decision," a "strategic mistake" and an act of "appeasement" of Erdoğan — represents a major geopolitical victory for the Turkish strongman.
The EastMed pipeline has been in the works for more than a decade. The Israel-Greece-Cyprus project — joined by Bulgaria, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia — has long been seen as a way to diversify natural gas supplies to Europe.
The Turkish government has always insisted that Israeli gas can only be sold to Europe through Turkey.
"The Americans do not want the pipeline because Ankara might 'get angry.'" — Theofrastos Andreopoulos, defense analyst, defensenet.gr.
"If Erdogan perceives the non-paper as some form of appeasement by Washington, he will simply double down on his gunboat diplomacy in the Eastern Mediterranean and play the role of spoiler in the region." — Richard Goldberg, a member of the U.S. National Security Council during the Trump administration.
Is the Biden administration truly concerned about climate change, or does it want to prevent Israel from becoming a strategically important supplier of natural gas to Europe?
"The reversal on the EastMed pipeline becomes only more hypocritical and offensive given the fact that President Biden continues to clear the path towards completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline." — U.S. Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"This is a disastrous decision that imperils European security and opens the door for further Russian energy hegemony in European gas markets. It should be reversed." — Ariel Cohen, veteran energy analyst, The Hill.
"Turkey is not looking to participate in Eastern Mediterranean initiatives, it wants to dominate them. Ankara's goal is not one of cooperation but of regional primacy if not hegemony." — Endy Zemenides, Executive Director, Hellenic American Leadership Council.
