“Running the government like a business” is a phrase we have heard ad nauseam from Republicans for decades. That’s why people elected George W Bush.
Remember that other war for oil? No, not that one, the other one. That “cakewalk” that was going to pay for itself with cheaper gas?
How much worse could it be when you elect a guy who managed to bankrupt 6 Casinos?
The administration seems to be promising that US oil companies are going to invest 100s of billions into decrepit oil facilities, to recover oil at a cost that is higher than what the global market is currently paying, and that somebody is going to back some oil tankers up to the dock in Puerto Miranda , load ’em up and bring ’em back to Houston, with no one in the still-intact government of Venezuela raising a question.
And that’s going to lower the price of oil below what is profitable for frackers in the Permian Basin, without impacting employment in that oil patch, and lower gas prices for the rest of consumers, in time for them to show their gratitude in the mid-terms.
Explain it to me like I’m five.
President Donald Trump said he believes the U.S. oil industry could get expanded operations in Venezuela “up and running” in fewer than 18 months.
“I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” Trump told NBC News in an interview Monday.
“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us, or through revenue,” he said.
If successful, the plan could effectively give the U.S. stewardship of most of the oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere, when factoring in deposits in the U.S. and other countries where U.S. companies control production. It could also fulfill two of the administrations’ primary goals: to box Russia and China out of Venezuela and to push energy prices lower for U.S. consumers.
Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of lowering oil prices to $50 a barrel, his preferred level, two senior administration officials said.
But oil prices are already low, with the U.S. benchmark hovering around $56 a barrel Wednesday, and Trump has struggled to persuade U.S. oil-and-gas producers to crank out more crude and help him accomplish his political goals. Many companies see $50 a barrel as a threshold below which it becomes unprofitable to drill, and a sustained period of low oil prices could decimate the U.S. shale industry, which has been a key backer of the president.
