Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: BengalTiger on August 22, 2009, 10:17:23 am
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Too bad it's not in U.S. waters.
Source (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html)
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.
The Bush Administration's five-year plan (2007-2012) to open the outer continental shelf to oil exploration included new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. But 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.
So much for becoming more independant from foreign oil. And I don't even feel like commenting the cash they're giving away...
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You know there's a lot more oil near the shores of Brazil than near US coasts (I presume), this seems to be a clever move.. still I don't know why does Petrobras need some financial help from US, as they bought most of the regional oil companies a while back.
Lula seems to be doing a good work with it's country.. I envy our Brazilian neighbours on this matter.
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Sounds like the plan is to get the benefit of offshore drilling while avoiding the NIMBY outcry you'd get in the U.S.
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lets deplete everyone else's oil and save ours for ourselves later
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when ever a conservative says we should drill our oil I argue nukes plan.
however, it feels like there is something else going on here, this is just too blatantly hipicritical, are there any major democrat allies who are heavily invested in Petrobras?
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lets deplete everyone else's oil and save ours for ourselves later
That is a good point.
Just remember about 1973...
What I'd like to see personally is at least preparing the infrastructure (from drilling platforms to new refineries) in case a similar event would happen in the future (perhaps this time Brazil would take the money and then ban selling oil to the US).
when ever a conservative says we should drill our oil I argue nukes plan.
however, it feels like there is something else going on here, this is just too blatantly hipicritical, are there any major democrat allies who are heavily invested in Petrobras?
Lets see if the GOP's find anything...
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when ever a conservative says we should drill our oil I argue nukes plan.
however, it feels like there is something else going on here, this is just too blatantly hipicritical, are there any major democrat allies who are heavily invested in Petrobras?
Nothing is too hypocritical for a politician. I don't think you should worry too much about which side of the house they come from.
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there is usually a threshold of hypocrisy that they won't cross unless there is money to be made.
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Our (UK) expenses scandal showed just how short the distance to that line is. It ended up being a game of "try to spot the guy who didn't milk the taxpayer".
If one of those bastards so much as farted gently it would push them over the line - they cashed in that bloody readily.
If we're supposed to be one of the less corrupt countries... yikes.