Venezuela Can, US Cannot!

So, let me understand if I get the picture coming out of Joe Biden these days. It’s fine and OK if Chevron can go to Venezuela to drill for oil, but here in the US, there’s (and I’m quoting Biden here) “No more drilling!” Is that right?

I know Biden is this climate change geek that thinks that everything has to be electric without realizing how electricity in this country is actually created. I realize that Biden has a love affair with the electric vehicles and wants to see the US do away with fossil fuels as soon as possible. But please, someone tell me that he’s not stupid enough to think that it’s absolutely OK if a country other than the US creates what in his mind is pollution that destroys the entire planet, and it’s still not OK for the US to do likewise. Is that just about the gist of it?

For those of you that are still in your Thanksgiving haze, Joe Biden’s administration has worked out a deal with Nicolas Maduro, the dictator in Venezuela. Basically speaking, it gives Chevron the ability to drill for oil in Venezuela (which has a ton of it just like the US), and then load that oil on tankers and ship it to the US for refining. But it’s not OK for the US to drill for oil in this country.

Now, the administration says that there are like 9,000 open drilling permits that are out there and are currently being unused. John Kirby, the NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications, called on the oil companies in this country to get those permits and start drilling! That’s a huge turn-about from Biden’s call on November 7th, when he spouted, “No more drilling!”. Ah, but what Kirby doesn’t tell you is the real story.

See, drilling permits aren’t oil permits. Drilling permits could be issued for your backyard. That doesn’t mean geologists have been over to your house and have determined that there is oil there. In fact, a lot of the 9,000 permits are in fact dry. Geologists from the various oil companies have indeed looked at the areas of the permit and decided it’s not worth drilling there. Drilling permits are the first step in finding oil. Then geologists have to determine if oil actually exists under the ground. Then they have to build the actual oil drilling rig. Then they have to add in the entire above ground infrastructure. They have to build the pads the oil rigs sit on. They have to build the roads leading up to rig because they don’t use ATV’s to carry the oil out of there! That process can take years. Then they can finally drill. Then comes the cementing and the testing. Then the well is completed and pumped. And then the fracking starts. Finally, there’s the well abandonment and land restoring to get the land back to the way it was before they started drilling. It’s a whole process. John Kirby, as smart as he thinks he is, obviously doesn’t know two cents about oil well drilling. I don’t either and I know enough to realize that I just said is the process!

So, we have a situation where Joe Biden goes off to Saudi Arabia, hat in hand, and begs the Saudi’s to drill for more oil. They refuse for the very simple reason that they are already at like 96% capacity. They can’t drill for more oil. Biden, or more probably, his staff realizes they just can’t shut off oil. It wouldn’t be prudent. So, now they need to find more oil to bridge the gap. They don’t want to drill here. They don’t want Canadian oil because then they’d probably lose the argument for stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline. So, they go to Venezuela. And the reasons are funny really.

The reason the administration goes to Venezuela and tells Nicolas Maduro that they are going to lift some sanctions on his country is because Venezuela owes Chevron some money. Well, more than some money. Many many monies. I think it’s in the hundreds of millions, but don’t quote me. And the Biden folks think that squares things. But doesn’t it still do damage to the environment? I mean, if it hurts the earth, it hurts the earth, right? So what if it’s in Venezuela or the US?

Biden’s problem here is he has to come clean and explain the reason. It was about oil, whether he likes it or not. Biden does not care about whether an oil company is owed money from a foreign government because he wants to shut down the oil companies. So, he has to come up with a reason, and that reason is as flimsy as a well-used paper straw. There are 9,000 drilling permits sitting there in DC waiting to be bid on. And he thinks no one knows that’s not going to solve the problem.

And now you know better!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Advertisement