Oil Spiking Because No One Putting America First

Oil opened in Asian trading Sunday night up another shocking $10 a barrel, reaching $126 at one point—a 13-year high, up from just $65 in December. The Biden administration and its pro-embargo cheerleaders in both parties are to blame, not the Russians.

If the price of oil is sustained at this level for more than a short period of time, it will cause a global recession. Gas could reach $5 per gallon or more. It just crossed above an average of $4 per gallon across the USA on Sunday.

If you think truckers are mad now, just wait. Rising t***sportation costs will increase the price of everything from food to housing. Already-rampant inflation will be out of control.

Of the many Biden-inspired parts of the crisis, the most recent were dumb comments made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. On Sunday, he appeared to endorse the idea of banning Russian oil exports, caving in to anti-Russian hysteria in Washington and Europe. As Reuters reported:

The United States and European allies are exploring banning imports of Russian oil, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday, and the White House coordinated with key Congressional committees moving forward with their own ban.

This is the insane work of a bipartisan, g*******t ruling class that does not understand economics or even simple math.

Total world petroleum production is about 95 million barrels per day, and supplies are tight with little extra capacity. Russia is the third-largest producer with 11% of the world total, just behind Saudi Arabia. By contrast, Iran, the largest producer previously to face extreme sanctions, accounts for just 3% of global production. We can isolate Iran, not Russia.

It is simply impossible to remove Russian oil from the world market without causing the runaway spike in prices we are now seeing. The White House knew this before it didn’t. Even as it sanctioned Russian banks just over a week ago, it said it intended to exempt trading in energy products.

Disingenuously, White House spokesman Jen Psaki said:

The reason why the price of gas is going up is not because of steps the president has taken they are because President Putin is invading Ukraine, and that is creating a great deal of instability in the global marketplace.

In fact, Russia is still producing and willing to export just us much oil as before its invasion of Ukraine. It was the Biden administration’s excessive and sloppy sanctions on Russia that resulted in a de facto embargo on Russia. In particular, Biden’s decision not just to sanction Russian banks but to swipe $400 billion that the Russian central bank unwisely kept in U.S. financial instruments, and to bar that central bank from any dollar-denominated t***sactions, spooked banks and oil traders globally.

Even though the administration mused that sanctions don’t apply to energy products, and even though the Treasury Department put out a document on Friday reasserting that claim, fear over the climate of hysteria is winning out. Late on Friday, Shell made the first purchase of Russian oil since the sanctions, likely at the urging of the British government, and got creamed for its action. Now, Blinken and a nonstop parade of virtue-signaling Republican and Democratic congressmen entertaining an embargo has led to a crisis.

But isn’t it our duty to pay outrageous prices for gas and everything else to help the Ukrainians? Isn’t this like buying a war bond during World War II?

It is not. High oil prices won’t help Ukraine or deter Russia. In the near term, the spike in oil prices will enrich big exporters like Canada and Arabian Gulf nations. Russia will eventually resume exports, even if not at the level before the war. It simply produces too much oil and gas to be isolated. Furthermore, China and India, which declined to join the U.S.-led sanctions regime, will gladly buy what others will not. Japan has also stated the obvious fact that it needs to continue to buy Russian energy to avoid economic catastrophe. Europe will also cave when it begins to understand the crippling financial and political cost of oil anywhere above $90 a barrel.

The only thing paying higher prices will achieve is harming America. And why? What Russia is doing to Ukraine is atrocious. However, Europe, not the United States should take the lead in preventing further Russian aggression. Europe has 400 million people and a $21 trillion economy to Russia’s 144 million people and $1.5 trillion economy. Even Germany alone has an economy that is more than twice the size of Russia’s. These people can afford to defend themselves. American spending on problems in Eastern Europe only creates a moral hazard that prevents Europeans from spending what they should.

Furthermore, rather than rushing to pro-war hysteria and floating ideas like a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine that would start World War III between nuclear-armed Russia and America, we need to focus more on not letting other people make their problems into our problems. The last war America won was the 1991 Gulf War. Recently, we have been involved in costly and humiliating military fiascos in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya. We are deeply in debt and have a military that cannot win wars. Furthermore, we face a major challenge from China with which Europe will be little help. (In fact, only Japan will render major support to that potential fight.)

Russia’s government is wicked and its war of aggression is cruel and unprovoked. But the anti-Russian hysteria afoot, reminiscent of the revival of McCarthyite hysteria we saw after G****e F***d’s death and the 2021 Capitol r**t, is devoid of any serious consideration of U.S. national interests. Politicians need to ask themselves if v**ers paying $5 a gallon for gas as they drive to polls in November will thank them or fire them. Congress and the administration should cut the preening, forget about playing global cop, figure out how to cut energy prices, and put America first.


President Trump: Executive Order on Energy Independence

On March 28, President Trump signed an executive order promoting American energy independence. It calls for a shift away from the destructive regulations issued under the Obama administration. The goal will be to provide energy security, job growth, and economic prosperity. The order directs federal agencies to review policies that impede energy production, and make recommendations to modify or rescind those that unjustifiably threaten energy independence.

Many of the actions specified in the executive order are examples of Washington’s overreach – agencies acting outside of their authority and trampling on policy areas that states have effectively managed. Actions targeted by the order impose significant costs on Americans, undermine the country’s ability to be energy independent, and provide few environmental benefits.

Biden Orders Reversal of Trump’s ‘Energy Independence’ Policies
Oilman Magazine

On January 20, Joe Biden took the oath of office to become the 46th President of the United States of America. He asked in his acceptance speech for American’s to unify. He pledged that his administration will create “good paying union jobs” as they clean up the environment.

He urged everyone to “Buy American.”

On January 27, President Biden issued executive orders which did just the opposite. He revoked the federal permit for the continued construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will cost 11,000 jobs (8,000 are union jobs), and he temporarily stopped granting permits for oil and gas operations on federal lands, which will reduce U.S. oil production and was immediately challenged with a lawsuit.

There were at least 10 other orders and directives issued aimed at repealing directives issued by Donald Trump.

For the oil and gas industry, Biden’s orders specifically mention methane emission regulations to establish comprehensive standards of performance and emission guidelines from existing oil and gas operations by September 2021.

Additionally, the order requires Texas to submit State Implementation Plan for Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) by January 2022.

Both requirements were part of the Obama administration’s plan from 2008 to 2016 when Biden was Vice President, and many of the bureaucrats that wrote the original regulations are back with the Biden team.

Biden’s revocation of the orders issued by Trump dealt with petroleum issues, such as “Waters of the United State,” “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” and “Promoting Energy Infrastructure.”

The Keystone XL Pipeline is another carryover from the Obama administration 12 years ago but ran into opposition from environmental extremists. The pipeline began in Alberta, Canada and was originally planned to reach Cushing, Ok., a major storage area for oil, but was revised to stop in Nebraska. President Trump approved the permit in March 2019.

The governments of Canada and Alberta wanted the pipeline completed because it would t***sport some 830,000 barrels of oil sands every day to consumers in the U.S. Proponents argued that the pipeline would t***sport a much-needed resource from a North American neighbor instead of importing oil by tanker from far away countries.

However, Biden stated in his order the “pipeline would not serve the U.S. national interest.”

Supporters of allowing the development of petroleum resources on federal lands pointed out the change will be costly, and it was challenged immediately with the filing of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Wyoming.

“Restricting development on federal lands and waters is nothing more than an ‘import more oil’ policy,” Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said. “With this move, the administration is leading us toward more reliance on foreign energy from countries with lower environmental standards and risks to hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in government revenue for education and conservation programs.”

Sommers said a permanent federal leasing ban would result in U.S. oil imports rising 2 million barrels per day by 2030, and U.S. gross domestic product declining $700 billion during the same span.

Texas would lose 120,000 jobs, and about 1 million jobs could be lost by 2022 nationwide.

The federal government could lose an estimated $9 billion in taxes, lease bonuses, and royalties.

With dwindling supplies, many forecasts rising petroleum prices and U.S. households could spend a cumulative $19 billion more on energy by 2030, the API study stated.

Biden’s executive orders will reduce U.S. oil supplies that reached historic levels of 13 million barrels per day just one year ago.

The increase in production allowed the U.S. to become a net exporter of oil and natural gas. It was labeled by some as an “energy renaissance” and others called it “energy independence.”

Yes she is. You would think some of these brain-dead Dems could at least come up with better than 3rd grade excuses. "My dog ate my homework" just doesn't cut it. I can't remember Trump making such a stupid blunder...on 4 hours of sleep. Never! Next you'll be saying "he push the button on the nuclear football, but didn't mean it. When speaking as the leader of the free world, and you differentiate between Russia and Ukraine, you have NO BUSINESS being in that position. "Too tired" is your excuse? Give me a break. Get real.

I challenge people and give them an opportunity to support their opinion and statements rather than lump them into a particular category or assume what their response might be; even when their past explanations may have been weak. Everyone should have the opportunity to explain themselves. If they’re unable to do so or are less than convincing, their position or stance on any subject is automatically disproven and can be dismissed. We all have our approach to reaching an understanding of our differing opinions. It helps to know the other persons basis for their opinion.