Dems: "After biden clobbered future U.S. oil & gas production, let's quietly end sanctions on Venezuela and buy *their* oil instead!"

Democrats are all about ending our nation's use of oil and gas, eh?  And to help start that process, on his first day in power biden signed "executive orders" halting the already started construction of the Keystone-XL pipeline, and ending offering to lease federally-owned waters (everything more than 3 miles from shore) for oil and gas exploration.

Yay, Democrats!

So in effect Porridgebrain did everything possible to stop oil and gas production on federal lands and waters--short of simply ordering all production stopped (which would have caused a revolution).

Thus it may come as a surprise to ya that after putting a huge crimp in future U.S. production, the biden regime has quietly given two major oil companies permission to negotiate with Venezuela to produce oil from that nation and sell it in the U.S.


One of the companies is ConocoPhillips, after the socialist government (Venezuela's, not ours) simply expropriated all of the company's equipment and assets in Venezuela in 2007, costing the company close to $10 billion.

The company has begun negotiating with Venezuela representatives to reach an agreement.  By selling Venezuelan oil in the U.S. ConocoPhillips would have a chance to recover the value of the assets seized by the Venezuelan regime in 2007.

Sources quickly added that this would also help the U.S. meet its energy needs.

Let's review here: biden puts a big hit on future U.S. oil production, then quickly gives two companies permission to sell oil from Venezuela in the U.S.  Does that make sense?

It does if you're a Democrat or socialist.

The U.S. has historically been the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil until Trump imposed sanctions on the regime in 2019 for its outrageous human-rights violations.  Several major refineries on the U.S. Gulf coast were specifically designed to process the "heavy crude" that makes up almost all Venezuelan oil.

But a sharp drop in Venezuelan production cut their exports.  Then Trump's sanctions, imposed by the U.S. in response to human rights violations and democratic backsliding, virtually ended U.S. purchases.

ConocoPhillips, which has a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to negotiate debt recovery with PdVSA, declined to discuss any deal with Venezuela.

In a prepared written statement, the biden State Department didn’t answer questions about ConocoPhillips, instead bleating that "U.S. policy is to implement and enforce our Venezuela sanctions in support of a return to democracy in Venezuela.”  

Well, except for the fact that the U.S. resuming buying Venezuelan oil would completely violate the sanctions, which makes that State Department statement utter bullshit to fool Americans who understandably have no idea what's going on--a condition made worse by State Department lies.

The ConocoPhillips deal comes after the biden regime gave Chevron a similar permission last November to restart oil production and exports from Venezuela to the U.S.  Chevron is reportedly already loading crude.

With the biden regime having signaled that sanctions are no longer operative, a handful of foreign oil and gas companies with Venezuelan production are seeking U.S. permission to sell that country's oil or gas in the U.S.

A former State Department official noted that “Other companies will demand to be treated equally by the Biden administration.”

It should be obvious that the biden regime ending the sanctions, by allowing Venezuela to resume selling its less-desirable "heavy oil" to the U.S, is a huge win for the socialist Maduro regime.  So what concession did the U.S. get in return for ending sanctions?

Glad you asked. The State Department quickly noted that the U.S. won a big concession:  In exchange for the biden regime ending sanctions, the Maduro regime "agreed to discuss a path to free and fair elections in 2024 with the opposition."

If you recognized that phrase as an "illusory benefit," congratulations.  Agreeing to discuss some topic is like me agreeing to discuss buying your one-bedroom house for $10 million.

State also noted another supposed "concession" from the Maduro regime: they promised to clear the way for a $3 billion United Nations-administered humanitarian aid program.

Oh.  Wait, that entirely benefits the Maduro regime.  How can that be considered a concession by Venezuela?

When you figure out that answer let me know.

Of course the Maduro regime recognizes a sucker when they see one, so said they are “totally ready to normalize diplomatic, consular and political relations” with the U.S., Maduro said recently.

I suspect we'll soon be seeing the biden regime pushing to give Maduro a couple of billion dollars as "foreign aid."  Dat what duh Media call "brilliant Dem leadership," eh?