On November 27, 2022, the Biden regime granted Chevron a new license to produce oil in Venezuela.
The irony here is that President Joe Biden ordered the shut down of the Keystone XL oil pipeline back in January, which is a more reliable and cleaner form of fuel from Canada according to the expert analysis that Jack McEvoy of Daily Caller was able to draw upon.
Biden shut down this pipeline under the pretext of addressing a “climate crisis” despite estimates pointing to the US being able to receive at least 630,000 additional barrels per day of higher quality Canadian oil through the canceled Keystone XL pipeline.
“In terms of the overall carbon footprint from well to wheels, Venezuelan oil is much more carbon-intensive than Canadian oil which comes from bitumen sands,” Institute For Energy Research Senior Vice President Dan Kish said to the Daily Caller.
The Treasury Department granted Chevron a six-month license to pump oil next to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) following Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s decision to hold talks with opposition leaders to purportedly hold “free and fair elections.”
Indeed, Venezuela produces a type of “heavy sour” crude oil that is akin to Canadian oil. However, Venezuelan crude causes more pollution than Canadian oil, per a 2018 Stanford University study. McEvoy noted that “Venezuelan crude produces about 20 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent per megajoule while Canadian oil produces roughly 18 grams of CO2 per megajoule.”
Sober minds will acknowledge that Venezuela is a Banana Republic despotic regime. However, that does not mean the US government should interfere in its internal affairs or try to topple its government. Though it is embarrassing that the US is in such a precarious energy situation that it has to bow down before a basketcase country like Venezuela to get reliable forms of energy.
In a saner world, the US would be tapping into its domestic production by fully liberating its energy sector or at least using a more reliable trading partner like Canada to meet its energy needs in the short-term.
No matter how one slices it, the reason the US finds itself in such a compromising energy position is due to its current public policy failures on the oil & gas front.