Venezuela has more oil reserves than any other nation. Trump during his single term in office imposed Draconian embargo terms on the nation after its leader, Maduro, was reelected. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, crude oil prices have skyrocketed, with opportunistic jacking up pump prices charged Americans being a consequence.
Biden is looking at Venezuelan oil as a way to help citizens against inflation in everything arising from basic increases in energy pricing, which affects other commerce because energy is the key input.
Republicans, beyond Floridians in fact are positioning to counter this effort to help American citizens under inflation burdens.
Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a May 17 statement, went a step further and said the administration should “reverse course and increase pressure on the Maduro regime and its enablers.”
“Instead of increasing energy production here at home, our president is turning to #Venezuela – an authoritarian regime with a history of egregious human rights violations,” Risch said in a May 18 tweet. “We should be producing oil here at home, not begging autocracies for bailouts.”
House Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in a statement referencing “the Biden administration easing energy sanctions on Venezuela,” argued that the US “did not need to import oil from Russia, and we do not need to turn to Venezuela now.”
Rather, she called on President Joe Biden “to unleash American energy,” and end policies that are standing in the way of the domestic production of “millions of additional barrels of oil per day.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican-Alaska, similarly asked the Biden administration to realize that “domestic supply matters” and “reverse its anti-supply actions,” during a May 18 GOP press conference on record-high gasoline prices.
The Biden administration “needs to restart our development programs, it needs to start approving crucial projects that deliver greater supply,” she said. “It’s a pretty simple choice here. We can pick Alaska over Iran. We can pick Wyoming over Venezuela.”
General License 8
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on PDVSA in January 2019. Those sanctions cut off flows of Venezuelan crude to US Gulf Coast refiners and others. The Biden administration last year reportedly came close to allowing crude-for-diesel swaps to restart on humanitarian grounds but ultimately decided to keep the ban in place.
The Treasury in November extended a waiver until June 1, 2022, that allowed Chevron to continue limited operations in Venezuela. That waiver, known as General License 8, was extended on the argument that the presence of US companies would be necessary to prevent the collapse of Venezuela’s oil sector and ease an expected recovery once Maduro was forced out of power.
However, Maduro has held onto power despite US pressure, with his party sweeping the country’s local and regional elections last year.
These are leadership Republicans re energy policy, not less. This clarifies a point in the earlier post where the question of how widespread is a Republican will to counter pump price relief. It is unavoidably so, with the suggestion that the U.S. be pumped dry first, (and damn the higher per barrel cost of such a policy going unmentioned), being a red herring.
Venezuela has the reserves. We do not.
No amount of environmental havoc, fracking, offshore, whatever, will change that blunt fact.
The Republican position is frivolous hand-waving; while they've postured for decades about letting free market forces hold sway. They are being wholly disingenuous.
Questionable and costly oil extraction in our nation is not nearly as promising a relief to citizens who need to be gassing their cars and trucks as is letting a nation with world-leading reserves compete to force the market to a new and more favorable supply-demand balance.
Whether Trump had an eye on helping Putin and the Koch family prosper by embargoing Venezuela as his main or secondary motive can be debated, but his action resulting in higher pump prices is in the past, and that action is not cause at this time to look away from what is the economically most sensible and justifiable course of short-term relief.
Long term, climate change must be addressed and renewable energy must be fostered. But that is not cause to be hosing consumers so drastically, short-term. While making Russia richer.
Take the Trump embargo off the market, let the market adjust, and thus help cash-strapped Americans fight inflation arising from artificially hiked energy pricing.
Or be a Republican, and oppose helping the people.
__________UPDATE__________
Trump not only impacted the oil market favorably to Russia and the Koch family via putting a squeeze on Venezuela, he did an additional squeeze on Iran. Having two big players impacted meant the market adjusted in a way that also benefited the Saudis, substantially, to where after Trump was voted out the Saudis benefited Jarad.
Substantially.
Saudi-Jarad clearly dwarfing via two billion anything likely to arise from GOP mucking in Hunter's laptop nastiness, should they take Congress.
And what all was Rudi doing in Ukraine, for whom besides Trump, in light of Ukraine now invaded by its energy exporter neighbor?
Curiosities abound. Yet Jarad's Saudi deal seems to have been severely under reported. Throughout Mainstream media. Nothing to see, I guess.
Jarad's sorry track record with the 666 Fifth Ave. property as proof of his money handling skills; the Saudi two billion seemingly on direct order of MBS, overriding the judgment of sovereign investment fund general management; curious, at best.