Category: Energy/Fuel

China Brokers Deal Between Iran and Saudi Arabia. What’s Next?

China Brokers Deal Between Iran and Saudi Arabia. What’s Next?

BY ANGELINE TAN

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/china-brokers-deal-between-iran-and-saudi-arabia-whats-next/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

On March 10, Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a diplomatic milestone when they agreed to reboot normalized ties in a deal brokered by China.

The countries unveiled their plans in a joint statement confirming that the two largest Middle Eastern nations by area will restart diplomatic relations after severing ties in 2016 when protesters stormed the kingdom’s embassy in Teheran after Saudi Arabia’s execution of a key Saudi Shi’ite cleric. The ensuing conflict between the two Islamic nations, situated less than 240 kilometers away from each other across the Persian Gulf, has long influenced politics and trade in the Middle East.

Tensions reached an alarming high in 2019 when a missile and drone assault on a key Saudi oil installation impacted half of the kingdom’s crude production. U.S. officials claimed that Iran was directly responsible for the assault, though Iran denied involvement.

Besides, both countries have been fighting what is essentially a proxy war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Saudi officials have also frequently voiced concerns over Iran’s nuclear program, saying that the kingdom would be Iran’s first target.

However, Friday’s deal would see a thaw in frosty ties, with each side reopening embassies in the other country within two months. Notably, this agreement was signed after four days of hitherto-classified talks in Beijing between top security officials from the two Middle Eastern powers. It was inked by Iran’s top security official, Ali Shamkhani, and Saudi Arabia’s national security advisor, Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiban. A third signatory was China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.

Both Middle Eastern countries thanked China, as well as Iraq and Oman for arranging earlier talks in 2021 and 2022.

“Talks were advanced on the basis of the consensus of the leaders of China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran…. China will continue to play a constructive role in handling hot-spot issues, (and) demonstrate our responsibility as a major nation,” said Wang.

Wang also pointed out that the talks demonstrated that the Ukraine crisis is not the only problem in the world and that there were many issues revolving around peace and people’s livelihoods that need proper handling.

In turn, Iraq lauded the agreement, saying the move would signify a new chapter between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“A new page has been opened in diplomatic relations between the two countries,” read a statement from the Foreign Ministry of Iraq, which has conducted various rounds of reconciliation talks for the Iranians and Saudis since 2021.

A senior Iranian security official said Friday’s agreement was backed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“That is why Shamkhani traveled to China as the supreme leader’s representative,” the official told Reuters. “The establishment wanted to show that the top authority in Iran backed this decision.”

Observers contend that this plan would most likely have far-reaching ramifications throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world.

For instance, Beijing’s involvement displays China’s rising clout in the region as well as the dwindling global influence of the United States, said Jon Alterman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“The not-so-subtle message that China is sending is that while the United States is the preponderant military power in the Gulf, China is a powerful and arguably rising diplomatic presence,” he said.

China’s role in brokering the deal could have “significant implications” for Washington, said Daniel Russel, the U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former president Barack Obama.

Russel said it is rare for China to independently broker a diplomatic deal in a conflict with which it is not involved.

“The question is whether this is the shape of things to come,” he said. “Could it be a precursor to a Chinese mediation effort between Russia and Ukraine when [President Xi Jinping] visits Moscow?”

Media outlet AFP reported China as being the “godfather” of the agreement, as its influence over Iran was key to reassuring the Saudis, citing analysts.

“This may be a sign of [China’s] growing confidence in its regional presence, it may be a sign that it thinks there is space to challenge US preponderance in the Middle East. In any case, it looks like a diplomatic win for China and a significant departure from its regional approach up to this point,” senior resident Atlantic Council fellow Jonathan Fulton told AFP.

For years, China has been trying to rival America’s role as a global superpower. Friday’s agreement was a big diplomatic win for China, challenging America’s influence in the Middle East.

The mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, the Global Times, praised the deal as a major indicator of Beijing’s influence as a global power, and the corresponding decline of American influence under aging Democrat President Joe Biden.

The Global Times further quoted analysts who credited Beijing with working out a deal between the Saudis and Iranians and providing stability to counter the “impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

Alluding to the deal, Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group said,

The White House has come out and said that it’s quite OK with the fact that they are reestablishing diplomatic relations, but it’s also clear that the United States could never have brokered this because it cannot speak to Iran directly. So if Iran and Saudi Arabia want to go ahead with this, they needed another intermediary, and that clearly was China. Now, is the United States happy that China is starting to present — profile itself in the Middle East as a potential broker of relations and with a history where it has had huge and growing economic and commercial investments and interests and is now starting to dabble in the political sphere? I’m sure that there are some concerns about the rising power of China that is starting to manifest itself in the Middle East as well on the political level.

Regarding America’s stance, White House spokesman John Kirby said that although Washington was not directly involved in Friday’s deal, Saudi Arabia informed U.S. officials of the talks.

Kirby seemed to minimize China’s role in Friday’s development, saying that internal and external pressure, including successful Saudi deterrence against attacks from Iran or its proxies, eventually convinced Teheran to normalize relations with the Saudis.

Nonetheless, former senior U.S. and UN official Jeffrey Feltman said China’s role, rather than the reopening of embassies after six years, is the most significant aspect of the agreement.

“This will be interpreted — probably accurately — as a slap at the Biden administration and as evidence that China is the rising power,” said Feltman, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

“China doesn’t have the capacity to play a bigger security role in the region,” commented Sanam Vakil, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, a London think tank. But the deal to restore diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia “foreshadows its potential to be an appealing alternative to Washington.”

Indeed, this recent deal brokered by China further adds to the communist state’s influence in the Gulf region, after authoritarian leader Xi Jinping’s meeting the leaders of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations in December last year.

In December, Xi had urged the Gulf countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — to conduct bilateral oil and gas transactions in the Chinese yuan rather than the U.S. dollar by using the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange as a platform.

Xi’s December trip marked “the birth of the petroyuan,” and China’s drive “to rewrite the rules of the global energy market,” according to Credit Suisse analyst Zoltan Pozsar, whose comments were published in a British newspaper.

Pozsar had previously said that China hoped to de-dollarize parts of the world since the U.S. dollar’s hegemonic status was used to undermine Russia. He acknowledged that Xi’s declaration was part of “a larger effort to de-dollarize” the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) “and many other parts of the world after the weaponization of dollar foreign exchange reserves” coinciding with the onset of the Ukraine-Russia crisis last year.

Dampening American influence in the region even further has been the tense relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, particularly since the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who had criticized the Saudi regime. Based on U.S. intelligence reports in 2021, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman authorized an operation to kill or capture Khashoggi.

Also, with the United States having strained ties with Iran for decades since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, it would be less able than China to arrange a deal such as last Friday’s between the Iranians and Saudis. In contrast, China has bought huge amounts of oil from Saudi Arabia and has maintained warm ties with Iran.

“It should be a warning to US policymakers: Leave the Middle East and abandon ties with sometimes frustrating, even barbarous, but long-standing allies, and you’ll simply be leaving a vacuum for China to fill,” said Jonathan Panikoff, the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative for the Atlantic Council, in a Friday statement.

It could be said that this deal reflects a shift in Saudi foreign policy away from the United States. While the United States remains Saudi Arabia’s largest military supplier, recent years have shown that the desert kingdom has been wooing several powers, including Russia, China, and now, Iran.

With Washington increasingly preoccupied with sending Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars in economic and military aid, the Middle East is trying to address its old divisions and ease tensions. Beijing’s ability to talk to all sides without lecturing them on human rights has thus far seemed to be a more appealing prospect for the region’s many authoritarian regimes.

Nevertheless, U.S. ally Israel lambasted last Friday’s announcement, stating it proved Washington’s and Israel’s “weakness” toward Tehran. “There was a feeling of US and Israeli weakness and this is why the Saudis started looking for new avenues. It was clear that this was going to happen,” a senior Israeli official told reporters traveling with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Axios.

This new development would make Israel’s goal to target Iranian nuclear facilities and Washington’s plans to destabilize the Iranian government even more challenging.

An unnamed senior Israeli political official accused former Prime Ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett for Friday’s China-brokered deal, after criticism from the opposition to the Netanyahu government for missing an opportunity to boost ties with Arab states.

In a statement to the Israeli paper Ynet, the official said, “The contacts between the countries started a year ago, during the term of the previous government, because there was a feeling of Israeli and American weakness. Weakness brings rapprochement with Iran, while strength pushes rapprochement away.”

“It is important to form a strong position against Iran, both in the United States and in Europe. The Israeli policy of preventing Iran from arming itself does not depend on the support of any country,” he noted.

That being said, the official stated that efforts will continue for an Israeli reconciliation with Riyadh. “The contacts are frequent and the basic picture did not change. The stronger the Western position against Iran is, the less significant their relations with Saudi Arabia will be.”

Meanwhile, Lapid’s office dismissed the official’s remarks, responding, “These are delusional statements. During the period of our government, an aviation agreement was signed with Saudi Arabia and the tripartite security agreement with Saudi Arabia and Egypt.”

Lapid then proceeded to blame Netanyahu for straining relations with Washington, stating, “All of this came to a halt when the most extreme government in Israel’s history was established here, and it became clear to the Saudis that Netanyahu was weak and the Americans stopped listening to him. Apparently, the Italian wine blurred Mr. Netanyahu’s memory.”

Lapid added, “The [Saudi-Iran] agreement is a complete and dangerous failure of the Israeli government’s foreign policy.”

“This is what happens when you deal all day long with legal madness instead of doing what needs to be done vis-à-vis Iran and instead of strengthening relations with the United States.”

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett reinforced Lapid’s views, saying, “The renewal of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a serious and dangerous development for Israel, a political victory for Iran, and a fatal blow to the effort to build a regional coalition against Iran. It is a resounding failure of the Netanyahu government, stemming from a combination of diplomatic neglect with general weakness and internal conflict in the country.”

Bennett added, “The countries of the world and the region watch Israel and see a country in conflict, with a dysfunctional government. And so these countries choose a side. The Netanyahu government is a resounding economic, political, and security failure. Every day, its actions endanger the State of Israel.”

Senior opposition member Gideon Saar, who is also a member of the Knesset’s foreign affairs and security committee, tweeted, “Netanyahu promised peace with the Saudis. But eventually [the Saudis] made peace with Iran.”

Chair of the Knesset’s foreign affairs and security committee Yuli Edelstein said that the agreement “is very bad for Israel and for the entire free world,” adding, “The world does not stop while we are busy here with power struggles and clashes — certainly not our worst enemy.”

The news of the China-brokered deal came as Netanyahu was in Rome for his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Speaking with Italian business people before the publication of the agreement, Netanyahu said, “I think the possibilities will grow beyond imagination if we are successful with another goal that I have, and that is to achieve normalization and peace with Saudi Arabia. One of my central goals is to achieve normalization with Saudi Arabia.”

The Israeli press pointed out that Netanyahu’s optimistic words before the publication of the Iran-Saudi agreement clearly showed he was out of touch with the Saudis’ intention that the Saudi deal showed that Riyadh does not think Israel has a feasible plan for curbing the Iranian nuclear program.

For years, Iran and Israel have been at loggerheads with each other, with Israel being one of the fiercest critics of Iran and its nuclear program. The Israeli government under Netanyahu had protested the 2015 nuclear deal that curtailed the program in exchange for the United States loosening sanctions on the Iranian regime.

In recent years, Israel has stepped up its diplomatic efforts with various Arab states, primarily via the 2019 Abraham Accords that saw Israel mending ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Subsequently, Sudan and Morocco also set up diplomatic relations with Israel.

The New York Times reported that Saudi Arabia has issued its conditions for recognizing Israel, which encompassed a security guarantee from the United States, the development of a civilian nuclear program, and reduced sanctions on U.S. arms sales.

President Biden appeared to express support for the Saudi-Iranian deal in a statement Friday, saying that “Better relations between Israel and their Arab neighbors are better for everybody.” Biden’s comments certainly hold true, but with his administration’s full-fledged support of the Ukraine conflict and reduced clout in the Middle East, it is not surprising if observers conclude that his words are mere rhetoric. After all, better relations between Ukraine and Russia, without further provocation of Russia by a U.S.-led NATO, would also be better for everybody.

Biden Sabotaging U.S. Energy Grid, Warns Expert

The Biden administration’s energy and climate policies are devastating American energy infrastructure and hurting U.S. consumers and the broader economy while doing nothing beneficial for the environment, explained President Frank Lasee of Truth in Energy and Climate in this interview with The New American magazine’s Alex Newman. Lasee, who served in the administration of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and also as president of the Heartland Institute, sounded the alarm about wind and solar “energy,” as well as the electric cars being forced on America by government policy. It does help Communist China, which is a major threat to America, and greedy cronies getting rich off the schemes, though, Lasee said. There are also many useful idiots who treat “green” as a sort of religion. Finally, Lasee breaks down some of the most outrageous propaganda and disinformation being put out by the government and amplified by establishment media.

Biden Limits Arctic Oil Drilling Project

Biden Limits Arctic Oil Drilling Project

BY DAVID KELLY

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/biden-limits-arctic-oil-drilling-project/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

President Biden approved a controversial oil project today in a compromise, a multistep decision affecting the Willow Master Development Plan in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The decision reduced the ConocoPhillips Willow project’s drill pads by 40 percent, while also “protecting” up to 16 million acres of land and sea in the U.S. Arctic Ocean from any future oil and gas leasing. 

Since before Biden took office, he has been at war with the oil and coal industries, seeking to reduce if not end their operations in the United States in deference to clean “green energy” wind and solar resources. Today’s decision supposedly was balanced to provide job opportunities and infrastructure for the nearby communities while protecting wildlife and the region’s unspoiled natural environment. It also helped to avoid a potential lawsuit over federal leases that ConocoPhillips has controlled on the NPR-A since 1999. 

The Willow project covers an area roughly the size of the state of Indiana. AP reported:

The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the company — about 1.5% of total U.S. oil production. The project is the largest proposed oil drilling on U.S. public land and the biggest oil field in Alaska in decades. Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said the development could be “one of the biggest, most important resource development projects in our state’s history.”

Today, following Biden’s announcement, the Interior Department (DOI) issued a Record of Decision substantially reducing the size of the Willow project by denying two of the five drill sites proposed by ConocoPhillips, including relinquishing “rights to approximately 68,000 acres of its existing leases in the NPR-A, including approximately 60,000 acres in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area.” The agreement also “reduces the project’s freshwater use and eliminates all infrastructure related to the two rejected drill sites, including approximately 11 miles of roads, 20 miles of pipelines, and 133 acres of gravel, all of which reduces potential impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users.” 

 

BLM.gov

Biden will still have to face the music over the new drilling agreement, as net-zero greenhouse-gas zealots will be greatly disappointed to learn the administration gave in to oil giant ConocoPhillips. “Extracting and using the oil from Willow would produce the equivalent of more than 278 million tons (306 million short tons) of greenhouse gases over the project’s 30-year life, roughly equal to the combined emissions from 2 million passenger cars over the same time period,” AP reported. 

The Willow agreement didn’t stop the administration from moving forward with their climate-change activism by taking important steps to limit future industrial development in the Beaufort Sea and NPR-A, securing indefinite “protection” to the area. The DOI has proposed a rule, which will be available for public comment in the coming months, to consider additional protections for the more than 13 million acres designated as “Special Areas” in the region. The land was recognized for its importance to wildlife and subsistence users.  

A DOI press release stated: “The rule would limit future oil and gas leasing and industrial development in the Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon, and Peard Bay Special Areas — places collectively known for their globally significant intact habitat for wildlife, including grizzly and polar bears, caribou, and hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.”  

Adding to the Willow project agreement, the DOI in another announcement said that “the Biden-Harris administration is taking sweeping action to complete protections of the entire U.S. Arctic Ocean from any future oil and gas leasing.” This includes the DOI “preparing new rules to provide maximum protection to millions of acres of lands in the western Arctic….”

 

BLM.gov

In today’s action, according to the DOI, Biden, using his authority under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, made approximately 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean nearshore in NPR-A indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing. “Today’s withdrawal ensures this important habitat for whales, seals, polar bears, as well as for subsistence purposes, will be protected in perpetuity from extractive development.” 

These announcements and impending actions on controlling oil and gas leasing in the Arctic comprise yet another step in Biden’s goal of adhering to the UN’s Agenda 2030.

To prove Biden’s success in his ongoing climate-change agenda, the DOI closed its press release by stating, “With these actions, President Biden continues to deliver on the most aggressive climate agenda in American history. He has made the United States a magnet for clean energy manufacturing and jobs. He secured record investments in climate resilience and environmental justice. And his economic agenda has put the United States back on track to reach its climate goals for 2030 and 2050, all while reducing America’s reliance on oil and protecting American families from the impact of Putin’s war on global energy markets.” 

Biden, Harris Say They’re Doing a Great Job Lowering Your Energy Bills

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/03/11/biden-harris-want-you-to-know-about-the-great-job-theyre-doing-lowering-your-energy-bills-n1677444;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

“I took the most aggressive action ever — in all of history in any country — to take on the climate crisis by lowering your home energy bills,” crowed Joe Biden during a speech touting his insane budget proposal. He might as well have claimed that he took “the most aggressive action ever — in the history of the universe” for all the truth there was in that statement.

The Republican National Committee was bewildered.

“Huh?” wondered the RNC. “Electricity is up 11.9%, fuel oil is up 27.7%, and natural gas is up 26.7% over last year.”

Not to be outdone, Vice President Kamala Harris had her own fantasy to share. On Feb. 24 during a speech at Bowie State in Maryland, Harris created a shopping list for Americans to buy stuff with all that money they were saving because of lower energy costs. “For working families, we have reduced heating and electricity bills so folks have more money in their pockets to buy things like school supplies, replace the dishwasher, or take a family vacation,” she said.

Can you take a family vacation on the difference between what gasoline cost in July and what it cost in February? Maybe you could ask your neighbor to put you and the kids up for a few nights. And what kind of dishwasher would you be able to buy?

Related: The Economic Case for Net Zero Is Zero

Our incurious and slavishly devoted media can’t rouse themselves to comment on the utter stupidity of both Biden’s and Harris’s flagrant lies.

FoxBusiness:

“Gas prices are up $1.03 a gallon from when Joe Biden took office. Biden’s administration continues to undermine American energy,” RNC rapid response director Tommy Pigott tweeted at the time. “Families have lost $2,250 paying higher energy costs since he took office.”

In December, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called a special legislative session to tax California’s oil refiners while blaming them for the state’s high energy prices.

Both Harris and Newsom know damn well that people haven’t saved a dime in energy costs since Biden took office. And Newsom knows that refineries aren’t responsible for California’s sky-high energy costs. But even when there’s pushback on these ludicrous statements, the administration just trots out another flunkie to continue the lies.

If only excessive, serial repetition made it so. “Cost relief” is not slightly coming off highs your policies created. You shouldn’t be crowing about it as if you’d accomplished something” explained Hot Air’s Beege Welborn.

That’s straight out of the Joseph Goebbels playbook: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

This Is the Left: Whitmer Enjoys an Evening Out While 700,000 Michiganders Freeze Without Power

This Is the Left: Whitmer Enjoys an Evening Out While 700,000 Michiganders Freeze Without Power

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/02/25/this-is-the-left-whitmer-enjoys-an-evening-out-while-700000-michiganders-freeze-without-power-n1673759; Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Leftists have already made it abundantly clear that they don’t feel bound to observe the rules they impose upon us. Remember Nancy Pelosi’s hair salon appointment while the salons were closed to other women in 2020 because of the COVID-19 hysteria? Pelosi’s nephew Gavin Newsom was likewise caught dining at a fancy French restaurant in defiance of his own COVID protocols. And now another star of the contemporary Left, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-FBI Kidnapping Hoax), took Thursday evening off to head in to Detroit, where she caught a performance of the musical “Jagged Little Pill” at the Fisher Theatre. This would have been an utterly unremarkable incident were it not for the fact that while Whitmer was enjoying her fun-filled evening out, 700,000 Michiganders were without power, smack in the middle of winter. This, once again, is how the Left governs.

An Instagram user inadvertently blew the whistle on Friday, when she posted a photo of herself with Whitmer, adding the caption: “Met the Governor, I can now say I have the key to the city. #dearborn #dearbornheights #detroit.” The first and only comment on the post, however, was less bubbly: “Oh hell nah. Tell her to get her a** to f**king work on the power.”

The commenter had good reason to be annoyed with Whitmer. The far-Left governor certainly was behaving like an entitled monarch indifferent to the suffering of her hapless subjects. The Detroit Free Press reported Thursday that “the freezing rain and ice storm that blew through Michigan downed trees and limbs, cut power to about 700,000 homes and businesses, closed schools and offices, suspended the QLINE, delayed air travel, caused car crashes and killed a firefighter in Paw Paw, who was electrocuted.”

Detroit’s DTE Energy, which had “nearly a half-million customers without power at one point Thursday” said on that day that most of its customers should have their power back by Sunday. Consumers Energy, which serves the other 200,000 customers whose power was knocked out, likewise said that the lights would come back on Sunday. That meant that these 700,000 people were facing up to four days without power from the time the storm hit and began knocking out the electricity on Wednesday night. And this happened in February. Yet Gretchen Whitmer thought it would be a fine time to take in a play.

What was Whitmer thinking? The lone Instagrammer who posted her photo seems to have been the only person who noted that she was enjoying an evening out while hundreds of thousands of her citizens were freezing without heat in their homes, so maybe she thought that the ever-sycophantic far-Left establishment media would cover for her, given her impeccable far-Left credentials, no matter what. And she would have gotten away with it, had it not been for the star-struck citizen who asked for, and then posted, a photo with the governor.

It may also be that Whitmer just doesn’t care about the bad optics. Democrats enjoy virtually complete control of Michigan at this point, so what are the proles going to do when they see her governor out in a warm hall taking in some entertainment? They can vote Republican all they want, but Michigan’s Democrat machine will roll right over them and leave them right where they were, freezing without power while those who have the power enjoy themselves.

Related: Whitmer’s Last-minute Live-shot COVID-dodge Clown Show

This is the way Leftists always govern. In the Soviet Union, the collective farms and soul-destroying high-rise apartment boxes were for the proletariat who were supposed to be exercising their dictatorship. Those who really had political power, meanwhile, lived it up in sumptuous dachas and feasted on gourmet meals served on the finest china. They deserved reward, after all, for all their efforts for The People, and so does Gretchen Whitmer.

Meanwhile, one of Whitmer’s subjects, Rochelle Brown, “said she wasn’t sure where she was going to spend the night.” Brown recounted: “A wire fell into my yard, my driveway. I thought it was going to set my house on fire. It sparkled and crackled all night. It’s cold in my house. I sent my kids other places, but I stayed in the home with my dog.” The National Weather Service noted that the ice “was between a quarter-inch and more than a half-inch thick, and utility executives added that when there is that much ice on the power lines, the effective stress of 20-mph winds is as if they were gusting at 60.” But why should Gretchen Whitmer be concerned about that? That’s for the common folk to be worried about.

 

Biden’s Inflation Is Crushing the Middle Class, No Matter What Stupid Lies He Tells

Biden's Inflation Is Crushing the Middle Class, No Matter What Stupid Lies He Tells

BY STEPHEN GREEN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/02/20/bidens-inflation-is-crushing-the-middle-class-no-matter-what-stupid-lies-he-tells-n1672221;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

“Inflation is coming down,” Presidentish Joe Biden insisted in his State of the Union address earlier this month, but new figures show Biden is full of the usual malarkey. “We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down.” Meanwhile, I went to fill up my car yesterday but escrow fell through.

At least I’m not in the market for a new car, something most Americans used to look forward to, but which is increasingly out of reach for millions. Fortune reported last week that “new cars are now toys for the rich,” as “the average price for a new vehicle in the US has jumped to almost $50,000.”

That’s up 30 percent since just 2019. Worse, rising interest rates — a harsh necessity to tame inflation — have caused monthly payments to rise even faster. That shiny new car you might have had your eye on will now cost an eye-watering $777 in base payments alone.

“Every aspect of buying and owning a car has gotten more expensive and outpaced the rate of inflation so it’s important to be more knowledgeable,” CarEdge expert Zach Shefska told Buffalo’s WHRZ News last week.

The average monthly loan payment for a used car is up to $544. As a young lad of 19, way back when, I once spent $700 on a good enough used car, if barely. Not $700 monthly. Total.

There is a silver lining to Biden’s dark cloud of inflation — if you’re a car manufacturer, that is. Car sales might be down — 8% since 2021 — but profits are going nowhere but up. “Ford’s gross profit rose 4.4% in 2022 from a year earlier,” according to that Fortune report, “while GM’s adjusted earnings grew by about $200 million to reach $14.5 billion.” Tesla made an annual profit of $12.6 billion in 2022, with revenues up 51 percent over 2021, “despite missing its sales forecast.”

Must be nice.

Did you want to fill’er up, too? Gas prices are “primed to rise in a few weeks,” according to GasBuddy. They’re already on the way up in the West where I live. Here in Colorado, the average price for a gallon of regular is back up over $4 after briefly dipping to around $3 last year. Californians are closing in on $5 once more, already at nearly $4.75.

Somehow though, a gallon of gas in California is still less than a dozen eggs almost anywhere. “The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs ran at $4.82 in January,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week. Not only are those eggs more expensive than the most expensive gallon of regular in the country, but it’s also more than the price of a pound of ground beef — that’s the first time eggs have eclipsed ground beef since BLS started tracking those prices more than 40 years ago.

In states like Colorado, where Democrats have passed strict laws regulating how chickens are kept, prices are even higher. My local Kroger-owned grocery store’s house-brand large white eggs are $4.99. The jumbo size will cost you more.

Home price inflation continues, albeit more slowly than before. Prices rose “only” 7.7 percent annually last November, down from October’s hectic 9.2 percent annualized increase. Nevertheless, monthly payments are going up unabated — just like monthly car payments — due to rising interest rates. “Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the benchmark 30-year rate rose to 6.32% from 6.12% last week,” according to ABC News. “The average rate a year ago was 3.92%.”

That’s Joe Biden’s inflation tax making us all poorer, just trying to buy the same food, cars, and houses we could buy before his spending orgy began.

The Left is winning its war on the American middle class through attrition.

ERIN BROCKOVICH COMPARES THE JULIA ROBERTS MOVIE TO THE TRAIN WRECK IN EAST PALESTINE, OHIO

Erin Brockovich on Joe Biden

Activist Erin Brockovich stands in front of a computer image showing photos of water samples from around the country, as she speaks during an Oklahoma Earthquake Town Hall Meeting at the University of Central Oklahoma on February 23, 2016, in Edmond, Oklahoma. In the inset, President Joe Biden. Brockovich called on Biden's administration to "step up" in response to the trail derailment in eastern Ohio.

Full interview: Erin Brockovich heads to East Palestine, Ohio

SEE: https://www.brockovich.com/

AND: https://hamerlaw.com/industrial-pollution-brockovich-case/

AND: https://www.communityhealthbook.com/

FED UP Erin Brockovich and "Terrified" East Palestine Residents Join on Ohio Train Explosion

SHORTER 38-MINUTE VIDEO:

LONGER VIDEO:

Erin Brockovich: Ohio 'community is left to fend for themselves on toxic train risk

Erin Brockovich: I’ve never seen anything like this

 

 

 

 

J.D. Vance Makes Bone-Chilling Discovery in an East Palestine Creek: ‘This is Disgusting’

J.D. Vance Makes Bone-Chilling Discovery in an East Palestine Creek: 'This is Disgusting'

BY Ryan Ledendecker

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ryanledendecker/2023/02/16/j-d-vance-makes-bone-chilling-discovery-in-an-east-palestine-creek-this-is-disgusting-n1671328;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The concerns regarding the East Palestine, Ohio, Norfolk Southern train derailment, which until recently was barely even acknowledged by the U.S. government, are growing by the hour. Many in the state and federal government have written the disaster off as not that big of a deal.

However, many residents in the area are scared out of their minds of the after-effects of the derailment, which ultimately resulted in hazardous chemicals seemingly spewing everywhere. After you watch what Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance tweeted while standing in a creekbed near the derailment site, you’ll understand why residents are frightened.

All it took for the senator to go viral on Thursday afternoon was a stick and a camera.

“Visited a local creek in East Palestine today. These waterways are still very polluted. It’s time for Norfolk Southern to finish the cleanup. Check this video out:” Vance tweeted.

“Hey guys, so I’m here at Leslie Run, and there are dead worms and dead fish all throughout this water. Something I just discovered is that if you scrape the creekbed, it’s like chemical is coming out of the ground,” Vance said before demonstrating what he discovered.

“This is disgusting,” Vance continued. “And the fact that we have not cleaned up the train crash, the fact that these chemicals are still seeping in the ground is an insult to people who live in East Palestine. Do not forget these people; we’ve got to keep applying pressure; that’s how we’re going to fix this problem. Thank you.”

One little scrape in that particular spot where the senator stood in the video, which looked undisturbed otherwise, and a sheen of rainbow colors immediately appeared across the surface of the water. So, either Vance struck oil, or that creek is chock-full of whatever nastiness came from the hazmat explosion at the train derailment site.

To be fair, action to mitigate the damage to local water supplies is well underway. In the video, Vance is seen standing in front of multiple containment booms, which help to filter out chemicals. It’s not accurate to say that nothing is being done about the surrounding environment, and it’s certainly not the kind of clean-up effort that will happen overnight.

CNN noted:

Ohio EPA and state officials have done several different things to try to contain pollution from the chemical spill. Crews have put oil containment booms in waterways and aerated contaminated soil and water.

Crews have excavated and removed nearly 500 cubic yards of “vinyl chloride-impacted material” including soil, according to Kurt Kollar, the on-scene coordinator for the Ohio EPA’s Office of Emergency Response. The EPA is also blocking off ditches around the contaminated dirt so that it doesn’t contaminate more water.

Tiffany Kavalec, the chief of the Division of Surface Water at Ohio EPA, reported that testing in Leslie Run shortly after the derailment revealed that “Data from February 4, the day after the train derailment, downgradient on Leslie Run and Little Beaver Creek showed very low detection levels of contaminants and mostly from fire residual chemicals. Data from February 10 more recently showed low levels of only two contaminants: butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate. Both are volatile, organic chemicals.”

So, are the chemical sheens simply firefighting chemicals hanging around from last week? Or is it something worse? Hopefully, in the coming days, we’ll find out more as further testing is conducted.

But people are justifiably uneasy about it all, especially when it’s viewed up close. On Twitter, many weighed in on Vance’s alarming video. One of the most significant concerns is that the water supply for East Palestine could be compromised, even though authorities insist that everything is totally fine right now.

“To those saying it’s all under control in Ohio (not many, I know) watch as @JDVance1 scrapes a creek bottom with a stick, instant chemical rainbow appears. This is people’s water supply we’re talking about and chemicals have been found hundreds of miles away,” DC Draino tweeted.

Another Twitter user expressed the harsh reality that this could be a long-term issue.

“Unfortunately I fear that it will take years to fully find out the damage these chemicals did to the community,” the Twitter user wrote.

As PJ Media’s managing editor Paula Bolyard noted Tuesday of some of the takeaways of Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s press conference on the disaster:

Bruce Vanderhoff, the director of the Ohio Department of Health, said the main concern at this point is drinking water, in particular, for those who have private wells. He urged both those with private wells and those on municipal water to use bottled water until more tests can be conducted. He also implored those with private wells to call the hotline so they can have their water tested at no cost. Bottled water is also being provided to residents. Vanderhoff said that women who are pregnant or breastfeeding could be especially vulnerable, in addition to infants on formula that is mixed with water.

“Make no mistake: This is still a very dangerous situation, and there are a lot of unknowns. Residents rightly fear there could be long-term health ramifications from being exposed to deadly chemicals. Only time will tell if officials on the ground have done enough to mitigate the risks,” Bolyard, an Ohio native, added.

During his visit to East Palestine on Thursday, Vance had a simple message for the Biden administration.

“I haven’t spoken to President Biden. My message to him is pretty simple. One, the Department of Transportation, your Department of Transportation, has things they can do. Stop blaming Donald Trump, a guy who hasn’t been president for three years, and use the powers of the federal government to do the things necessary to help the people in this community,” Vance said, according to Fox News.

The government’s overall tepid response to what feels like a mini-Chernobyl is beyond disturbing and only raises additional questions. The possible health risks and cancer clusters from potentially contaminated water supplies could take years — maybe more — to fully realize.

As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reported Thursday, DeWine was notified that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has refused to provide assistance at this time.

“The DeWine Administration has been in daily contact with FEMA to discuss the need for federal support, however, FEMA continues to tell Governor DeWine that Ohio is not eligible for assistance at this time,” DeWine said in a statement. “Governor DeWine will continue working with FEMA to determine what assistance can be provided.”

It’s easy to see why people are so scared, especially when they feel they’ve been practically abandoned.

Nord Stream 2 Bombshell, Twitter Execs Under Fire, and Satanic Pop Stars

Seymour Hersh cracks open the Nord Stream 2 story with a bombshell report. Devil worshipping pop stars rack up Grammys. Is American culture on a Highway to Hell?

Selwyn Duke checks in to take a closer look, as Daniel Natal breaks down the news with Rebecca Terrell for today’s episode of The New American TV with Rebecca Terrell.

Also featured: Arpa-H explained, Legislative Analysis, The Twitter Files and much more.

U.S. Lifts Oil Sanctions in Venezuela Amid Energy Crunch

U.S. Lifts Oil Sanctions in Venezuela Amid Energy Crunch

BY ANGELINE TAN

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/u-s-lifts-oil-sanctions-in-venezuela-amid-energy-crunch/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

SINGAPORE — Venezuela has resurfaced as a prominent player in the world’s energy market, as the U.S. lifts oil sanctions on the country amid a global energy shortage.

The South American country produced more than three million barrels of oil daily 20 years ago, exporting 1.8 million barrels of that to the United States, but its abundant production was undermined by corruption and a fall in oil prices.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump enforced sanctions against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in 2019, but the Ukraine-Russia crisis since 2022 has tweaked U.S. priorities, and the U.S. has had to recalibrate relations with oil producers like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia on the grounds of reducing dependence on Russian energy.

In late 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden loosened sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for democratic reforms, which caused Venezuela to emerge again as a major oil source for the U.S. and Europe.

ORC Consulting Firm director and political analyst Oswaldo Contreras remarked: “The reality is that Venezuela became a real focus of attention for this reason. For the western world, it can be a relatively secure and trustworthy oil provider that can also support Europe.”

The last ten years witnessed the shrinking of the country’s oil sector by about two-thirds, and currently, Venezuela produces less than 700,000 barrels daily. The loosening of sanctions could gradually increase that figure to over a million barrels, though observers contend that it still would require over a year for the country to attain that target, as considerable investment is needed in the oil sector following years of mismanagement.

In November, the U.S. said it would permit Chevron, the last American company to operate in Venezuela, to start obtaining oil in limited amounts there again. Chevron is involved in five onshore and offshore production projects in the country and owns stakes in four joint ventures with state oil company PDVSA.

Mariana Vargas Carballo, an oil expert from Gas Energy Latin America, commented: “This license states that they are going to renew every month. It will be renewed every month for a period of six months maximum. And that gives you the perception that it is a trial test. It is not a long-term permit.” “We cannot expect a large increase in production,” she said. “At the beginning, it is expected to extract about 100,000 to 150,000 barrels per day, but the maximum they can reach is 250,000 barrels per day.”

The recent U.S. move has been lambasted by Venezuelan opposition and activists, as well as some American lawmakers. These critics think that Washington is ignoring human rights abuses in the country.

Since 1999, Venezuela has been governed by an authoritarian socialist regime that holds a tight grip on all of the country’s public institutions and branches of power. The regime has unlawfully held on to power since 2019 via sham presidential elections in 2018, and control of the National Assembly through another round of sham elections in 2020.

Maduro, high-ranking members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and the nation’s military have been singled out by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other international organizations for helming the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), one of the largest intercontinental drug trafficking networks in the region.

The leftist regime in the country also enjoys widespread networks among other international criminal organizations, such as Colombia’s Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and members of the socialist regime have been directly blamed for their ties to international terrorist organizations. For instance, the regime’s oil minister, Tareck el Aissami, has been criticized for having links to the terrorist organization Hezbollah, to whom the Maduro regime has sold Venezuelan passports.

Additionally, a Transparency International report revealed that illegal business accounted for 21 percent of Venezuela’s entire GDP in 2021. The report also broached the issue of Venezuela’s mining arc, where criminal organizations “exercise vast control over gold mining operations, using extortion and paying off military commanders to maintain their illegal activities.” “These groups are responsible for human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, the killing of indigenous leaders and the displacement of their communities, forced prostitution, and labor exploitation of both adults and children, as well as contamination and other serious environmental crimes,” the report asserted.

The United Nations (UN), through its Independent Fact-Finding Mission, released a detailed report in 2020 confirming the control of the mining arc, where the criminal groups — notwithstanding the “considerable” presence of Venezuela’s military — participated in serious crimes like extortion, amputation, child labor, and the burying of living miners.

Maduro praised the recent U.S. moves and even urged for a total cessation of all sanctions. “The licenses granted by the U.S. government, some of them known and some other unknown, they’re going on the right track, although they are not enough,” he said.

The Biden administration posited that future loosening of sanctions will hinge on further political deals, such as the release of political prisoners and free and fair Venezuelan elections in 2024.

Last year, Venezuela ranked as the most corrupt country in the Americas, with Haiti and other authoritarian regimes in the region like Cuba and Nicaragua trailing behind, based on Transparency International’s 28th Annual Corruption Perceptions Index.

The report listed Venezuela as the fourth most corrupt out of 180 countries, behind only Somalia, Syria, and South Sudan.

What is more, the report said, the top three most corrupt countries in the Americas, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela, are those whose public institutions have been corrupted by criminal networks, and hence “it is difficult to draw a line between public institutions and criminal activities” in those countries.

“Pervasive corruption across the Americas fuels the many other crises facing the region,” said Delia Ferreira Rubio, chair of Transparency International. “Weak governments fail to stop criminal networks, social conflict, and violence, and some exacerbate threats to human rights by concentrating power in the name of tackling insecurity.”

“The only way forward is for leaders to prioritize decisive action against corruption to uproot its hold and enable governments to fulfill their first mandate: protecting the people,” Ferreira said, a suggestion likely to remain unheeded by Maduro, who has a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head for drug trafficking.

Afghanistan: Taliban, China Sign Oil Exploration Deal

By

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/01/afghanistan-taliban-china-sign-oil-exploration-deal;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Chinese oil company “will invest as much as $150 million in the first year and $540 million over the subsequent three years.”

Seventeen months after taking power, the Taliban signed a major oil deal with Communist China. On Thursday, a Chinese state-linked energy company sealed a 25-year oil exploration agreement with the Taliban regime.

The deal is expected to bring in nearly $700 million in investment in the next four years to the Taliban-run Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, news reports suggest. “Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co. will invest as much as $150 million in the first year and $540 million over the subsequent three years to explore five oil and gas blocks” covering an area of around 1,738 square miles in northern Afghanistan, the newspaper Times of India reported citing Taliban-regime sources.

“The militant group will earn 15% royalty fees from the 25-year contract. Daily oil production will start at 200 tons and gradually rise to 1,000 tons. The five blocks are estimated to hold 87 million barrels of crude oil, according to a previous survey.” the Indian daily added.

The BBC reported the details of the China-Taliban deal:

Afghanistan’s Taliban government is to sign a contract with a Chinese firm to drill for oil in the country’s north.

It would be first major energy extraction agreement with a foreign firm since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.

The 25-year deal underscores China’s economic involvement in the region. (…)

The oil extraction agreement would see Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company (CAPEIC) drilling for oil in the Amu Darya basin, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.

“The Amu Darya oil contract is an important project between China and Afghanistan,” China’s ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu told a news conference in the capital Kabul. A Chinese state-owned company is also in talks over the operation of a copper mine in the east of the country.

The massive oil deal comes as the Biden administration and its western allies are pouring in millions to sustain the Taliban-controlled country. “Forty-one countries and organizations committed $2.44 billion in humanitarian aid,” The Wall Street Journal reported in March. “The U.S. committed $204 million at the conference, a bit over half of the U.K.’s pledge of about $376 million (£286 million),” the business daily added.

While the West feeds impoverished Afghans, the Taliban are busy converting the country back into a safe haven for fellow terrorist groups seeking to wage global jihad. Afghanistan “could once again become a base for international terrorist attacks after the withdrawal of US and Nato troops last year,” a United Nations report feared in June 2022. Al-Qaida, the Taliban’s main ideological ally, is operating under the protection of the new Islamic Emirate and enjoys an “increased freedom of action,” the report found.

China’s Long Game in Afghanistan

President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan has opened up the jihad-ridden country to Beijing’s strategic and commercial exploitation. The oil deal will serve as a blueprint for China’s access to Afghanistan’s untapped resources estimated to be worth over $1 trillion, news reports suggest.

“The progress of this project has created a model for China-Afghanistan cooperation in major projects in energy and other fields,” China’s ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu said Thursday.

 

Canceling Keystone XL Cost US Thousands of Jobs and Billions of Dollars, Biden Admin Now Says

Canceling Keystone XL Cost US Thousands of Jobs and Billions of Dollars, Biden Admin Now Says

BY MICHAEL TENNANT

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/canceling-keystone-xl-cost-us-thousands-of-jobs-and-billions-of-dollars-biden-admin-now-says/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline cost the United States tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, the Biden administration belatedly confessed last month.

According to Fox News, the Department of Energy (DOE) released a report “in late December without any public announcement” stating that the pipeline project “would have created up to 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of up to $9.6 billion.”

Unfortunately, President Joe Biden, bowing to radical environmental activists, canceled the project’s permits on his first day in office, drawing criticism not just from Republicans but also from his erstwhile labor-union allies, who did not appreciate his destruction of thousands of anticipated union jobs.

Just how many jobs Keystone XL would have created has long been in dispute. TC Energy, the Canadian firm that operated the pipeline, initially claimed it would create 20,000 jobs, a figure then-President Barack Obama disputed, saying the number was “maybe 2,000 during the construction of the pipeline” and 50 to 100 permanent jobs thereafter. Around the same time, the State Department forecast the project would create 42,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction and nearly 4,000 direct jobs. “The project labor agreement that TC Energy signed in August 2020 with four labor unions promised the pipeline would create 42,000 American jobs and provide $2 billion in total wages,” reported Fox News. The Biden administration, which had every incentive to lowball its estimate of jobs lost to the pipeline’s cancellation, actually came in with by far the highest projection of all. No wonder it kept its report under wraps until after the midterm elections.

“The Biden administration finally owned up to what we have known all along — killing the Keystone XL Pipeline cost good-paying jobs, hurt Montana’s economy, and was the first step in the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas production in the United States,” Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said in a statement to Fox News. “Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States.”

“These policies may appeal to the woke left but hurt Montana’s working families,” he continued. “I’ll keep fighting back against Biden’s anti-energy agenda and supporting Montana energy projects and jobs.”

Fox News wrote:

The DOE was forced to issue the report after Daines and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, successfully inserted a bill mandating the report into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Biden signed into law in November 2021. The agency was required to publish the report within 90 days of the bill’s passage but ultimately waited more than a year before releasing it.

A group of 23 states filed a federal lawsuit to overturn Biden’s executive order that canceled Keystone XL, but after TC Energy declared it would no longer pursue the project, a judge dismissed the case as moot, leaving significant constitutional questions unanswered.

Of course, a large portion of the estimated 830,000 barrels of crude oil that Keystone XL would have transported from Canada to the United States via an emissions-free pipeline is still going to make its way here. It’s just going to be moved by the costlier means of train or truck, generating carbon-dioxide emissions and other “pollutants” that the environmental lobby detests — and forcing consumers, already reeling from inflation, to pay even more for gasoline and other petroleum products.

Indeed, faced with potential electoral fallout from high gas prices, Biden pressured Saudi Arabia — whose horrific war in Yemen he continues to aid and abet — and other OPEC+ nations into delaying oil-production cuts until after the midterms.

“The Department of Energy finally admitted to the worst-kept secret about the Keystone Pipeline: President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline sacrificed thousands of American jobs,” said Risch.

“To make matters worse, his decision moved the U.S. further away from energy independence and lower gas prices at a time when inflation and gas prices are drastically impacting Americans’ pocketbooks,” he added.

“The president must turn to American-made energy and jobs rather than dictators and despots to fix the energy crisis he created on his first day in office.”

Biden’s Oil Deal With Venezuela Worse Than You Think

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2022/12/02/bidens-oil-deal-with-venezuela-is-worse-than-you-think-n1650381;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

A week ago the Biden administration announced that it had approved an expansion of the license to Chevron so they could resume oil production in Venezuela.

This was a surprise given the administration’s hostility to fossil fuels in general and oil from Venezuela in particular.

Andrew Stuttaford of NRO described the decision, writing that it “combined disdain for human rights with a degree of geopolitical stupidity impressive even by its own dismal standards.”

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.

Wall Street Journal:

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.

Financial Times:

“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. . . .

The decision to allow Venezuela to expand oil production is stupid, self-defeating, and dangerously naive. All are hallmarks of the Biden administration’s approach to international relations.

The U.S. Approves Oil Production, but You Won’t Believe Where

Charles Payne: Why is Biden allowing drilling in Venezuela, not here?

Charles Payne joined 'Hannity' to discuss the Biden administration's energy policies and decision to ease sanctions against Venezuela.

BY CHRIS QUEEN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/chris-queen/2022/11/26/why-should-the-biden-administration-encourage-u-s-energy-independence-when-it-could-reward-dictators-instead-n1648795;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Once again, the Biden administration is content to allow ruthless dictators to sell their oil, while it won’t allow the U.S. to drill for and refine its own oil.

On Saturday, the U.S. granted an expanded license to Chevron to resume oil production — in Venezuela.

“The decision allows Chevron to revive existing oil projects in the U.S.-sanctioned country and bring new oil supplies to refiners in the United States,” reports Reuters. “However, it restricts cash payments to Venezuela, which could reduce the amount of oil available to Chevron.”

The move obviously benefits the Maduro regime in Venezuela by boosting its economy.

The terms of the license prevent Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA from benefiting from the sale of Chevron oil; instead, the money will go to a humanitarian fund. The deal also blocks Chevron from helping Venezuela start new oil fields. The license expires in six months, but the U.S. will renew it monthly once that six-month period ends; however, the administration reserved the right to rescind the license at any time.

“This action reflects longstanding U.S. policy to provide targeted sanctions relief based on concrete steps that alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy,” read a statement from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The catch is that there’s no guarantee that the Venezuelan regime will go for the license since it contains so many restrictions.

“There is not a big incentive in the short term,” said Francisco Monaldi of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. “We’ll see how Maduro’s government reacts to it and how many cargoes will be assigned to Chevron after.”

Related: More Ridiculous Electric Vehicle Advice
All of this comes on the same day that representatives of the Venezuelan government and opposition leaders conducted talks in Mexico City to discuss a United Nations effort to benefit the Venezuelan people — something that wouldn’t be necessary if Marxists weren’t in charge of the country. The Mexico City talks could also determine how the Venezuelan regime responds to the license from the U.S. government.

It’s yet another example of the Biden administration’s energy policies benefiting other nations, particularly those that are hostile to the U.S., at the expense of America’s domestic production.

I’m old enough to remember when the U.S. was energy-independent. We produced our own plentiful oil. Prices were low, and the industry created thousands of jobs for hard-working Americans. Those days are a thing of the past.

The Biden administration killed U.S. energy independence from day one, destroying jobs and jacking up energy prices. Sure, these policies weren’t the sole source of the inflation that’s plaguing us right now, but they did serve as the steroids that beefed it up.

At the same time, these are the same people who expect hardworking Americans who sometimes struggle to make ends meet to give up their gas-powered cars for expensive electric vehicles. Remember, it’s so simple to “ride on sunshine” when you buy an electric car, the average price of which is $64,249 as of October 2022.

“The average starting price for the top 10 best-selling electric cars in America is $60,500, but all except the Tesla models are subject to dealer markups,” reports Justin Fischer at YAA,” (emphasis in the original), who also points out that “more drivers are getting squeezed into $1,000/month car payments” for electric vehicles.

Add to that the fact that everything we’re paying for is getting more expensive in part because of fuel costs, and the administration’s license to Chevron to produce in Venezuela is even more maddening.

The truly simple solution is to restore America’s energy independence, but why would the Biden administration do that when it could prop up a Marxist nation instead?

Homemade energy crisis? Another refinery, owned by Chevron, goes up in flames – sabotage of oil infrastructure?

Homemade energy crisis? Another refinery, owned by Chevron, goes up in flames – sabotage of oil infrastructure?

BY ETHAN HUFF

SEE: https://www.newstarget.com/2022-11-11-chevron-refinery-fire-flames-sabotage-oil-infrastructure.html;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The night of the midterm election, another oil refinery, this one owned by Chevron and located in El Segundo, Calif., caught fire under mysterious circumstances.

Firefighters were called to the scene, which was described as a “massive fire” – see the video below. Officials say they have no idea how the fire started.

The next day, Reuters reported that the “isolated fire” occurred inside Chevron’s 269,000-barrel-per-day (BPD) refinery and is now extinguished.

None of the facility’s “major processes units” were affected, the same report claimed. (Related: In September, numerous oil refineries in Ohio mysteriously caught fire and had to be shut down.)

Firefighters were able to fully extinguish the fire around 8:35 p.m. PST not long after the polls closed and votes were being counted.

A company spokesman from Chevron claims the fire did not impact the refinery’s ability to supply petroleum products to customers throughout the Southern California region.

Chevron facility where fire occurred produces 20% of vehicle fuel, 40% of jet fuel across Southern California

The fire began not long before 6:13 p.m. when dispatch was called. It was considered to be a “two-level alarm” affecting El Segundo, as well as nearby Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Lose Angeles County.

According to Chevron’s website, the El Segundo refinery in question supplies 20 percent of all motor vehicle fuel across Southern California. It also supplies 40 percent of all jet fuel consumed across the southland.

The incident occurred at a time when gasoline prices across California are soaring to $6 a gallon and beyond. They dipped slightly before the midterm election, but are now expected to increase by another $1 per gallon moving into December.

Meanwhile, “planned work” is said to be scheduled at two competitor refineries near Chevron’s refinery. These include Marathon’s 363,000-BPD refinery in Los Angeles and Valero’s 145,000-BPD refinery in San Francisco.

Is this all just a coincidence, or are these fires and “planned work” events being coordinated to further take down America’s fossil fuel supplies, and thus our country’s energy independence?

Keep in mind that many other refineries have also been hit with mysterious fires in recent months, as have a spate of food production facilities all across the country. Is this ecoterrorism and depopulation at work?

“Joe said no more oil,” wrote a commenter about the matter, referring, of course, to fake president Joe Biden and his anti-fossil fuel agenda. “First it was food supplies; now they are going after fuel capabilities.”

Another wrote that “they do this every time they need an excuse to increase prices even further.”

“It’s part of their playbook,” this person added.

If this is all planned as many believe it is, then the country, and presumably the world, is about to undergo a massive de-industrialization transformation, which means lots of depopulation as well.

“The ‘green’ movement will take us back to the Stone Age,” interjected another commenter. “There is no such thing as ‘global warming.’ Even the term ‘fossil fuels’ is a misnomer. The earth produces all the energy we need.”

“This will adversely affect the prices California consumers pay at the pump,” added another to the conversation – though many would contend that the rest of the country will suffer, too.

“Only thing is while the Chevron refinery fire will be local to CA, the halt of crude oil from SPR (strategic petroleum reserves) will have a nationwide effect.”

America’s fossil fuel energy sector is under attack. To keep up with the latest, visit Terrorism.news.

Sources for this article include:

Twitter.com

Reuters.com

NaturalNews.com

IMMINENT FOOD CRISIS! – Fuel Shortage Could Lead To SOCIETAL COLLAPSE! – What You NEED To Know!

Josh Sigurdson reports on the controlled collapse of the supply chain and the grid as we come up on a complete collapse of the fuel supply in the United States and very little being done about it.

With less than 15 days left of the diesel supply, many are warning to deaf ears that the supply chain could see a complete collapse the likes of which we've never seen. Many experts and banks are even saying we are facing societal collapse.

We tried to warn Europe and few listened. Now they're facing the consequences if they did not prepare. Now it's coming to the United States.

All the while, the governments of the world are exacerbating the crisis in every way humanly possible and it all leads to the planned collapse of an empire and the rise of a new world order based on a cashless society, a Great Reset, and a controlled technocracy based in social credit and carbon credits.

SEE ALSO: https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/report-food-security-is-national-security/

Four Days Before Election Day, Biden Claims He Is Closing Coal Mines. Are You Listening Pennsylvania?

BY KEVIN DOWNEY, JR.

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2022/11/04/four-days-before-election-day-biden-claims-he-is-closing-coal-mines-are-you-listening-pennsylvania-n1642926;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

As if John Fetterman’s debate with Dr. Oz wasn’t enough of a campaign killer, Joe Biden announced today that he will be closing coal plants in favor of wind and solar power.

Let’s see how that goes over with Pennsylvania voters, especially considering that Fetterman claimed a while back he is against fracking, although he flip-flopped when asked about this in the debate.

What happens if Pennsylvania loses coal and fracking? The state will be financially gutted. More importantly for now, how will Pennsylvania voters respond to Gropey Joe’s threats to close coal plants?

Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of gas and the third-largest producer of coal in the nation. There are roughly 18,000 people employed directly or indirectly in the coal business, people who may not want to be unemployed because of the Democrats’ war on coal, gas, and fossil fuels in general.

FACT-O-RAMA!  Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline, costing thousands of jobs and 800,000 barrels of oil a day. Remember that on Election Day.

Some polls have Oz up just a little bit on Fetterman, who shot himself in the foot during the debate when he struggled to put two sentences together.

Ohio has a bevy of coal mines, too, most of which are located near the border Ohio shares with West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Like Pennsylvania, Ohio has a grueling Senate race going as well, in which GOP candidate JD Vance is slugging it out with the Democrats’ Tim Ryan. Polls show Vance with a tiny edge but well within the margin of error.

RUMOR-O-RAMA! Obama once supposedly said, “Never underestimate Joe’s ability to f*** things up.” Obama, for once, was right.

Will coal employees help the GOP in this election? More entertainingly, will Biden’s handlers be able to shut him up for the next four days so that he can’t torpedo his own party?

Iran begins refining 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil in Venezuela

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/10/iran-begins-refining-100000-barrels-per-day-crude-oil-in-venezuela;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

In yet another strengthening of the red-green axis (that is, Marxism and Islam), Iran has begun processing nearly 100,000 barrels per day of its crude oil in socialist Venezuela as the two countries increasingly tighten relations. It’s happening fast: Last April, the two countries “announced a 20-year cooperation plan in the fields of oil, refining, petrochemicals, defense, tourism and culture, and agriculture,” with no information about the nature of “defense” cooperation. In May, Iran signed a $116 million contract with Venezuela to repair and expand its oil refinery. In June, “Maduro paid a visit to Tehran and signed a 20-year partnership agreement on cooperation with Iran in various fields.” Then in August, Venezuela provided Iran with 1,000,000 hectares of farmland for “cultivation.” One hectare is the size of two and a half football fields.

Last year, reports emerged that Venezuela was hosting Palestinian jihadists, including Hizballah and Fatah cells involved in money laundering, drug dealing, and jihad activity. In 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned an antiterrorism conference in Colombia about the Iranian proxy Hizballah’s presence in Venezuela, and an exiled former mayor, Antonio Ledezma, stated that Hizballah would participate in overseeing Venezuelan regional elections. Ledezma called Venezuela “a den for terrorist groups.” Venezuela also offered in February 2021 to supply natural gas to Mexico. By befriending Mexico, Iran and Hizballah will have a clear path to infiltrate the U.S., especially given the wide-open Southern border, which is thanks to Joe Biden and the Democrats.

“Iran starts refining its crude oil in Venezuela: Oil minister,”  Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide, October 18, 2022:  

A first oil refinery processing Iranian crude oil outside of the country has started operations, according to a statement by the Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji who says the project in Venezuela will be replicated in other parts of the world.

Owji said on Sunday that Iran had started processing some 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude produced in Iranian oilfields in Venezuela’s El Palito refinery.

He said the project had come to fruition thanks to efforts by the Iranian Oil Ministry’s fuel department the NIORDC.

“This was an old dream that came true … this effort saw its starting point in Venezuela and plans are in place to replicate the project in other regions,” the minister was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

El Palito is located in central Venezuela. The NIORDC signed a $116 million contract with Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA in May to repair and expand the refinery….

America Has Only 25 Days of Diesel Fuel Left in the Tank

Biden's Diesel Fuel Supply Crisis Could Soon Cripple America in Ways Never Before Seen

BY Ryan Ledendecker

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ryanledendecker/2022/10/21/bidens-diesel-fuel-supply-crisis-could-soon-cripple-america-in-ways-never-before-seen-n1638814;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Oil prices and President Joe Biden’s continued draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have dominated the headlines over the past few weeks, but analysts say a more impactful and serious crisis on the energy front looms: a diesel fuel shortage.

Diesel doesn’t get as much of the limelight as oil and gas, but it should because diesel fuel is the industrial lifeblood of the United States, and the price of diesel alone probably has a more significant impact on inflation and the prices you’re paying at the grocery store over any other factor. Without ample amounts of diesel, semi-trucks don’t move, farms are shut down, and critical manufacturing sectors are crippled.

As Bloomberg noted this week, “The US has just 25 days of diesel supply, the lowest since 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration. At the same time, the four-week rolling average of distillates supplied, a proxy for demand, rose to its highest seasonal level since 2007.”

The Biden administration has remained strangely silent, probably hoping that the dismal news doesn’t hit the mainstream because it’s a total political timebomb waiting to go off, especially as the midterm elections are so close.

Bloomberg noted:

The diesel crunch comes just weeks ahead of the midterm elections and has the potential to drive up prices for consumers who already view inflation and the economy as a top voting issue. Retail prices have been steadily climbing for more than two weeks. At $5.324 a gallon, they’re 50% higher than this time last year, according to AAA data.

Notably, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese recently commented on the emerging crisis. Deese said diesel inventories are “unacceptably low” and added that “all options are on the table,” whatever that means.

Aside from that remark, the White House has done little to nothing about the issue — an issue that could further cripple confidence in the ability of Democrats to lead America through tough times, as they’ve already proven on many occasions over the past two years.

Diesel has also been described as the nation’s “inflation canary,” given that it’s so critically important for everything we need to survive. The bottom line is that without ample supplies and record-high prices for what’s left, Americans will get financially hammered over the winter and into 2023.

Folks, it’s probably going to get really bad out there. The scary part is that the Biden administration doesn’t seem to give a rip.

How bad is this situation truly? Let’s put the pieces together.

We have a historically low supply of diesel fuel, which powers everything that allows us to eat, drink, and live our daily lives. Because of the diminished supply under Biden, we have surging prices, making the cost of hauling goods, farming, and everything else that requires diesel fuel (pretty much everything) higher than ever before, which will cause prices of everything we use and need to increase in the coming months significantly.

Add to that a potentially hard, cold winter for many parts of the country, when heating oil demand will skyrocket, causing prices to soar once again over competition for what’s left in the tank.

I’d say that it’s unbelievable that the Biden administration has let the problem get so bad as to be a potentially crippling crisis for America in the coming months, but it’s not. In fact, it’s quite believable, and it lines up with other jaw-droppingly stupid decisions made by the current White House that many now believe are so bad that they are likely intentional, for whatever sinister reasons.

So, in other words, if you thought prices at the pump, the grocery store, and everything else that affects our lives are high now, you ain’t seen nothing yet, Jack.

If you have the ability and resources to prepare for the worst, it’s probably a good time to start.

 

Biden Raids Strategic Petroleum Reserve Again in Pre-election Political Move

Biden Raids Strategic Petroleum Reserve — Again — in Pre-election Political Move

Biden announces the release of 15 million barrels of oil from strategic petroleum reserve

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: Biden selling Strategic Petroleum Reserve decision makes no sense:

Senate Energy Committee member Roger Marshall addressed the president releasing millions of barrels of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve on 'Mornings with Maria.'

BY WILLIAM F. JASPER

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/biden-raids-strategic-petroleum-reserve-again-in-pre-election-political-move/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

With the midterm elections only three weeks away, Team Biden has decided to raid the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) again, apparently in the hopes of driving down fuel prices sufficiently so that voters won’t take revenge against Democrats at the polls. The SPR was established to serve as a supply of fuel in times of emergency — as in war and other major disruptions — not as a tool to lower fuel prices for political gain.

This past March, President Biden announced that he would be releasing 180 million barrels of oil from the SPR at one million barrels per day. One of the beneficiaries of that move is Communist China, which sucked up nearly a million SPR barrels, even though Biden claimed the releases would go to help American consumers at the pump. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now at its lowest point in forty years, as the possibilities of war loom all about us, and our energy sector is in shambles, thanks to the Biden administration’s anti-energy policies. Now the president is selling off an additional 15 million barrels of SPR oil.

Speaking from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on October 19, the president announced that he was authorizing the release of another 15 million barrels of oil from the SPR as a “critical step” to reduce prices. He also attempted to deflect blame from his own energy policies by blaming the oil and gas companies for America’s energy woes. “My message to all companies is this: You’re sitting on record profits. And you’re and we’re [sic] giving you more certainty. So you can act now to increase oil production,” he said.

This is typical Biden scapegoatism. First, he blamed Vladimir Putin for shortages and high prices. Last year he blamed mom-and-pop gas station owners, warning them against gouging customers at the pump. He blamed struggling gas station owners again in September of this year. “Bring down the prices you’re charging at the pump to reflect the cost you pay for the product. Do it now. Do it now. Not a month from now — do it now,” he demanded.

But the blame goes to Biden. When he came into the White House, America was flush with oil and natural gas, a near-miraculous turnabout resulting from President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again energy policies. Not only had we, in a few short years, become largely energy independent, but we were also exporting oil and gas. President Trump unleashed American energy producers from the oppressive policies of the Obama-Biden administration, enabling them to tap our abundant natural resources.

Biden changed all that. As one of his first actions in office, he canceled the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline — and boasted about it. He froze U.S. oil and gas leases and permits. He slammed oil refineries with harsh regulations that are putting many smaller refineries out of business. He continued the Obama-Biden war on coal. He insists that we must get rid of fossil fuels altogether and switch over to “renewables.” He has reversed the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the United Nations Paris Agreement on global warming and is flogging the UN’s climate hysteria for all it’s worth.

Winter Blackouts for New England Add to Woes at the Pump

Not only is the “Biden effect” reflected in unprecedented gasoline and diesel prices, it may soon be felt in rolling electrical blackouts and freezing homes due to shortages of liquefied natural gas (LNG). “New England power producers are preparing for a potential strain on the grid this winter as a surge in natural-gas demand abroad threatens to reduce supplies they need to generate electricity,” The Wall Street Journal reported on October 17.

“New England, which relies on natural-gas imports to bridge winter supply gaps, is now competing with European countries for shipments of liquefied natural gas, following Russia’s halt of most pipeline gas to the continent,” the Journal continued. “Severe cold spells in the Northeast could reduce the amount of gas available to generate electricity.”

“Should LNG supplies dwindle during a harsh winter,” reports the Daily Caller, “states like Massachusetts and Connecticut could struggle to generate electricity as a substantial amount of fuel supply will be used to heat homes, according to the region’s grid operator Independent Systems Operator New England (ISO NE).”

The Biden albatross will not help midterm Democratic candidates: spiraling fuel prices, spiraling inflation, spiraling violent crime rates, spiraling border invasion, spiraling DOJ/FBI political attacks on Middle America, spiraling Covid vaccine deaths, and spiraling global tensions equal downward-spiraling Biden approval ratings. The spirals have Biden’s White House handlers and the Democratic Party in panic mode. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve selloff (a national security sellout) is a desperate move, but it is not likely to salvage many votes. Team Biden and their promoters will have to resort to more 2020-style election “irregularities” to avoid getting crushed on November 8.

Related articles:

President Biden Sells U.S. Reserve Oil to Chinese Firm Connected to Son

Biden Did Attempt to Delay OPEC Cuts Until After Midterms

Biden: Americans Will Pay High Gasoline Prices for “as Long as It Takes”

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