WSJ:
You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.
The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.
But look on the bright side. If President Obama has embraced offshore drilling in Brazil, why not in the old U.S.A.? The land of the sorta free and the home of the heavily indebted has enormous offshore oil deposits, and last year ahead of the November elections, with gasoline at $4 a gallon, Congress let a ban on offshore drilling expire.
[…]
[…] in 2007 environmentalists went to court to block drilling in Alaska and in April a federal court ruled in their favor. In May, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his department was unsure whether that ruling applied only to Alaska or all offshore drilling. So it asked an appeals court for clarification. Late last month the court said the earlier decision applied only to Alaska, opening the way for the sale of leases in the Gulf. Mr. Salazar now says the sales will go forward on August 19.
This is progress, however slow. But it still doesn’t allow the U.S. to explore in Alaska or along the East and West Coasts, which could be our equivalent of the Tupi oil fields, which are set to make Brazil a leading oil exporter. Americans are right to wonder why Mr. Obama is underwriting in Brazil what he won’t allow at home.
Why wonder? Some of us already know why.*
George Soros funds leftwing activism in this country. Leftwing activists have taken over the Democrat party, leaving it a “progressive” party that hides behind the less benign “liberal” designation. The leftwing activists in power show their gratitude toward Soros by making him even wealthier — and he shows his gratitude by funding the leftist organizations that we know to be plotting a kind of soft coup. Quid pro quo.
And here we thought the money laundering scheme the Dems and the public sector unions cooked up was big. Posh. That’s kiddie stuff.
(h/t Joe and TerryH)
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update: “Petrobras told it can use deep-water vessel in Gulf”.
Bringing home America’s energy independence one foreign contract at a time.
YES WE DID, BITCHES!
It helps that the president of Brasil is even harder left than Obama.
It also helps that you can’t cripple the U.S. economy (and people) without putting a stranglehold on energy supplies.
Gives “tilting at windmills” a whole new meaning.
But wait, there’s more!
Petrobras told it can use deep-water vessel in Gulf
It is finally OK to deepwater drill in the Gulf of Mexico! If you’re Brazil.
Treason. That’s the only word for it.
Anybody know where 0’s money is invested?
The only Brazilian oil a US President should be oogling is on scantily clad nubile beauties on the beaches of the Copacabana!
Either Bill or Hillary said that, I am not sure which.
He’s gone long on redistribution. But not with his money.
I thought Soros sold his Petrobras shares after Beck and others pointed it out? http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-17/soros-sells-petrobras-dumps-biggest-company-holding.html
I’m not sure what full relationship we have with Brazil, but this “deal” may just be a way to make amends? http://www.theblaze.com/stories/specter-of-currency-war-rears-its-head-at-davos/
Well, Mr. B, when you own the majority shares in the bank and they just happen to be holding all the paper on Petrobras, who owns whom? Makes no matter what the stock holdings are, if you are the financing arm of the company and you hold all the debt, you have the company at your disposal.
Kinda like the Chinese and the US debt and them telling us they are unhappy with how we’ve been managing their asset.
Yes, he dumped them to avoid the appearance of impropriety. But that’s not the point. See Stephanie’s comment below. The point is, how many of these arrangements are being made that aren’t being uncovered?
As far as I know, the main relationship we have with Brazil is that fugitives who flee there are safe from extradition. So, if 0 is making snoogly with them…
Thanks for the clarity Stephanie.
I did not intend my questions to diminish any points offered. I recalled the shares were dumped and just wanted to share that bit. I stumbled across the second link while digging for the first. That is just another question that popped into my head; regarding a possible deal.
I’m doing work around the house and stopped in for a bit. Sometimes I post stuff as I think out loud; knowing that you guys have advanced understanding of much of this. I don’t expect anyone to be my tutor, but I do appreciate the insight.
One benefit of having sweaty feet is the salt helps make more palatable a foot inserted into my mouth. A risk I am willing to take for better understanding.
Know what helps me cope with this kind of crap? A little fable my lefty professor father told me. Not that I believe it, but intent would not seem to matter in this case: we’re intentionally and coherently, over different administrations (don’t laugh), buying up and using the rest of the world’s oil, while leaving ours safely in the ground for the future.