Energy Policy: While leaving U.S. oil and jobs in the ground, our itinerant president tells a South American neighbor that we'll help it develop its offshore resources so we can one day import its oil. WHAT?!?
His "What, me worry?" presidency has given both Americans and our allies plenty to worry about. But in the process of making nice with Brazil, Obama made a mind-boggling announcement that should make even his most loyal supporter cringe:
We will help Brazil develop its offshore oil so we can one day import it.
We have noted this double standard before, particularly when — at a time when the president was railing against tax incentives for U.S. oil companies — we supported the U.S. Export-Import Bank's plan to lend $2 billion to Brazil's state-run Petrobras with the promise of more to follow.
Now, with a seven-year offshore drilling ban in effect off of both coasts, on Alaska's continental shelf and in much of the Gulf of Mexico — and a de facto moratorium covering the rest — Obama tells the Brazilians:
"We want to help you with the technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely. And when you're ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers."
There are some major technological hurdles to overcome for Brazil's new oilfields to payoff. If it does, the US will benefit from cheaper oil and keep our own coastlines clean.
Plus I think developing those oilfields will send a lot of cash and jobs to America.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
SS109 wrote: There are some major technological hurdles to overcome for Brazil's new oilfields to payoff. If it does, the US will benefit from cheaper oil and keep our own coastlines clean.
Plus I think developing those oilfields will send a lot of cash and jobs to America.
So you think Brazilian oil will be reserved for the US and it won't be a global commodity like all the rest of the world's oil? It doesn't work that way, if oil is selling at 100 a barrel on the world market, that's what Brazil will be getting for a barrel of oil too, why would they discount it to us?
SS109 wrote: There are some major technological hurdles to overcome for Brazil's new oilfields to payoff. If it does, the US will benefit from cheaper oil and keep our own coastlines clean.
Plus I think developing those oilfields will send a lot of cash and jobs to America.
Oh another kennedy in our midst. "We want clean wind energy, but don't you dare put those windmills up in our back yard". No wonder people around the world hate Americans.
And why does no one ever ask this govt. why the hell we are exporting 622million barrels of oil per year? That makes as much sense as California exporting all its strawberries and then importing strawberries from Germany.