By Daniel Nardini
For the life of me, I cannot understand why the U.S. President Joe Biden administration decided to scotch the oil pipeline from Canada and end all shale fracking and import Russian oil in 2021. America was basically self-sufficient in oil and natural gas before then, but it seems that the left wing of the Democratic Party decided to shut all of this down in creating a “green agenda.” So importing oil from a potential enemy, like Russia, was the height of stupidity. Now that Russia is being cut out because of its invasion of Ukraine, gas prices in the U.S. are going up and up. It is becoming obvious that the United States will have to, out of necessity, get oil and natural gas from other sources.
This is why I find it inexplicable for the United States to even remotely think about getting oil from Venezuela again. Why? One of the reasons why America imposed sanctions against the socialist government of current leader Nicolas Maduro was to not finance his policies of repression. Has the U.S. government forgotten that the largest refugee crisis in the Americas is due to Venezuelans fleeing their country because of their government? If we start giving the money and funds and loans that the Venezuelan government wants, then we will in fact accelerate the refugee crisis, and all of this will look like we are trading lives for oil.
Why can’t President Biden simply try to make America self-sufficient in oil and natural gas as we were before 2021? This is one of the ways how the United States got out of the conflicts in the Middle East; because we no longer needed their oil and no longer had to send our military there to secure these resources. Does it make sense for us to work with a one-party repressive government just to get a badly needed resource? In a time of uncertainty, we as a country and a people should not sell out our values for some resource or strategic position in the short-term. We should not substitute Venezuelan oil from a repressive government in place for Russian oil from another repressive government.
Substituting Venezuelan Oil for Russian Oil
By Daniel Nardini
This is why I find it inexplicable for the United States to even remotely think about getting oil from Venezuela again. Why? One of the reasons why America imposed sanctions against the socialist government of current leader Nicolas Maduro was to not finance his policies of repression. Has the U.S. government forgotten that the largest refugee crisis in the Americas is due to Venezuelans fleeing their country because of their government? If we start giving the money and funds and loans that the Venezuelan government wants, then we will in fact accelerate the refugee crisis, and all of this will look like we are trading lives for oil.
Why can’t President Biden simply try to make America self-sufficient in oil and natural gas as we were before 2021? This is one of the ways how the United States got out of the conflicts in the Middle East; because we no longer needed their oil and no longer had to send our military there to secure these resources. Does it make sense for us to work with a one-party repressive government just to get a badly needed resource? In a time of uncertainty, we as a country and a people should not sell out our values for some resource or strategic position in the short-term. We should not substitute Venezuelan oil from a repressive government in place for Russian oil from another repressive government.