No, not the girl from Ipanema. And probably not simply to visit Brazil's Marxist guerrilla president. It was part of a deal to authorize the Brazilan petroleum giant, Petrobras, to
"operate the Gulf of Mexico's first floating production, storage and offloading vessel, clearing the way for the Brazilian oil giant to start pumping oil from two deep-water fields, federal regulators said Thursday."Isn't that special! We're going to allow a Brazilian oil company to do something we've never allowed Exxon or Shell or other American companies to do. I suppose it's only right, since under our stimulus program, we authorized a loan to Petrobras for up to $2 billion, (although they apparently only used about a sixth of that). But why a Brazilian company?
While (as far as I understand) we can't stop a foreign company from drilling for oil in the open Gulf of Mexico, since it's international waters, this is not where the Cubans/Chinese plan to drill. We have no authority there; this is 165 miles from Louisiana. We are favoring a foreign company to produce and sell oil that an American company could just as easily get. Every one of this administration's policies I can think of is anti-energy and especially anti-US energy. This is a good example. What can you expect from a president who campaigned on wanting to destroy the coal industry and cause energy prices to skyrocket (which would further cripple the US Economy)?
As I said during the BP disaster, I understand the sentiment of not wanting another spill, but saying we're not going to drill anymore is like saying, "I got food poisoning so I'll never eat again". Ultimately, it's suicidal. Allowing a foreign company to do things Americans are not allowed to do is economic suicide. But in keeping with the colonialist/socialist views we keep seeing out of this president.
Honestly, I don't find these things surprising anymore. This administration seems to have no policy on anything, just sort of making it up as they go along, and what they do from incident to incident almost capriciously unpredictable. The only constant is, as you say, the policy of energy starvation along with some of the standard left-wing ideological contradictions.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I'm right there with you.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Department of Justice vs. the Black Panthers to today's turd; from the corporate bailouts to the exemptions for the politically connected, we're no longer a nation of laws, but a nation of men.
Perhaps this is something as simple as Obama killing two birds with one stone: continuing to sabotage our economy to accelerate our movement into socialism and also feathering his own nest. I envision a large deposit into someone's numbered account over the money Petrobras will make on this deal. Along with what they realize by not repaying the loan. South America has a long history of defaulting on loans.
ReplyDeleteAny bets on whether or not Brazil will sell some of that oil to America? Or will they decide to pull a "Chavez" on us once they begin pumping?
Reg T - for reasons known only to Blogger, it flagged your comment as spam and I had to approve it for posting.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right, of course. George Soros used to own a large part of Petrobras, but sold out when there was a bit too much publicity over that fact. Or simply hid it better. That's the sort of crony-ism I expect from these guys.