President Biden is being hammered for his decision to allow Chevron to resume pumping oil in Venezuela, with former White House Economic Adviser Stephen Moore saying the move makes “absolutely no sense.”
The Treasury Department announced Saturday that it was giving Chevron the green light to pump in the socialist country for the first time in years in a joint venture with the country’s national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela.
On November 26th, the Unitary Platform and the Maduro regime announced the resumption of talks in Mexico City; a humanitarian agreement focused on education, health, food security, flood response, and electricity programs that will benefit the Venezuelan people; and agreement on the continuation of talks focused on the 2024 elections. Following this announcement and consistent with U.S. government policy, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Venezuela General License (GL) 41, authorizing Chevron Corporation to resume limited natural resource extraction operations in Venezuela. This action reflects longstanding U.S. policy to provide targeted sanctions relief based on concrete steps that alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy.
This authorization prevents PdVSA from receiving profits from the oil sales by Chevron. GL 41 authorizes activity related to Chevron’s joint ventures in Venezuela only, and does not authorize other activity with PdVSA. Other Venezuela-related sanctions and restrictions imposed by the United States remain in place; the United States will vigorously enforce these sanctions and will continue to hold accountable any actor that engages in corruption, violates U.S. laws, or abuses human rights in Venezuela. (Treasury Department)
OIL MARKET: Washington eases its oil sanctions on Venezuela, allowing Chevron (for the next 6 months) to pump crude in the Latin American nation and export it into the United States. A major shift in the White House policy | #OOTT #Venezuela $CVX 🇻🇪 ⛽️ 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/fM1F6lOtJ2
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) November 26, 2022
Commenting on the news, Moore said he nearly fell out of his chair reading the headlines.
“This is the same administration that won't allow us to do drilling here in the United States, not in Texas, not in Oklahoma, not in Alaska, not in West Virginia. But we can pump oil from Venezuela,” he told Fox News of the “America last” policy. “It makes absolutely no sense…When Trump left office and I helped Trump on energy policy, our whole policy was to make America totally energy independent so we wouldn't have to rely on countries like Venezuela and Iran and Russia. And so somebody explain this one to me because it makes no sense.”
GOP lawmakers also blasted the move.
Drill in America—not Venezuela.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) November 28, 2022
Joe Biden would rather see American companies drill in Venezuela than in the USA.
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) November 27, 2022
I’d rather us rely on American energy than the energy of nations that hate us.
Joe Biden: Gives Chevron approval to pump oil in Venezuela.
— Lance Gooden (@Lancegooden) November 26, 2022
Also Joe Biden: Gave 11,000 American Keystone XL pipeline workers pink slips.
.@NicolasMaduro is a brutal dictator who commits horrific human rights abuses against the people of Venezuela.
— Congressman Ben Cline (@RepBenCline) November 27, 2022
It’s far past time to produce our own oil, but instead the Biden admin does business with Maduro & his murderous regime. https://t.co/hWOoJLH9YF
A White House official claimed the move has nothing to do with current oil prices, but instead is "about the regime taking the steps needed to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela,” an administration official told The Wall Street Journal.