President Biden: "I Need TP For My Bunghole"
Members of the Saudi-led oil cartel and its allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, are expected to announce production cuts potentially up to more than one million barrels per day. That would be the largest cut since the beginning of the pandemic and could lead to a dramatic spike in oil prices.
Some of the draft talking points circulated by the White House to the Treasury Department on Monday that were obtained by CNN framed the prospect of a production cut as a "total disaster" and warned that it could be taken as a "hostile act."
"It's important everyone is aware of just how high the stakes are," said a US official of what was framed as a broad administration effort that is expected to continue in the lead up to the Wednesday OPEC+ meeting.
The White House is "having a spasm and panicking," another US official said, describing this latest administration effort as "taking the gloves off." According to a White House official, the talking points were being drafted and exchanged by staffers and not approved by White House leadership or used with foreign partners.
I understand why Russia wants to cut production-- maybe. I'm not sure why the Saudis would go along with it, but there are a couple of possibilities:
1, the Saudi crown prince is still angry that Biden accused him of murder, threatened him with consequences, and never apologized for doing so, even as he begged the Saudis to bail him out of a jam by increasing oil production to make up for the suppression of oil production that is a key plank of the Green New Disaster.
2, there is currently a fairly serious popular uprising going on in Iran. I hear from a source, who heard from his source, that this uprising is actually more serious than those in the West appreciate, and that the Revolutionary Guard has announced it will remain neutral if there's a credible challenge made against the regime itself.
Recalling that Obama bailed Iran out of a similar threat-to-the-regime in 2009, I'm wondering if Biden is right now attempting to prop up the Iranian regime behind the scenes, and the Saudis (and the various other OPEC members who are allied against Iran) have decided to show their extreme opposition to the US again swooping in to save the mullahs.
That is a complete wild-assed guess on my part. I know of no actual reporting suggesting a covert effort to aid the mullahs and I don't have any tips suggesting such a scheme, either. I'm just speculating about what could animate the Saudis to absolutely kick Biden in the Creepy Ivory Tombstone Veneers.
And meanwhile the Biden Administration is calling this a "hostile act" and threatening our 60 year allies the Saudis -- "All to avoid more domestic oil production," as liberal-gone-sane Dr. Michael Shellenberger says.
He posts this chart from the Wall Street Journal showing the oil leases granted by the federal government under presidents since JFK:
He notes,
"In March 2022, before the US cut-off, the U.S. imported 18M barrels of Russian oil; in 2021, the U.S. produced 19M barrels of oil *per day*.
A single lease in Alaska that Biden administration killed would have produced over 5 million barrels per month," linking his own article on the subject.
President Joe Biden, spokespersons for his administration, and Congressional Democrats say they are trying to get out the truth about energy and climate change against Republican and fossil fuel efforts to deny it.
Over the summer, Biden denied he was "limiting oil production" and accused oil refiners of restricting production. In July, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, "natural disasters... are getting worse because of climate change," which, he said, had caused the war in Syria.
And Rep. Ro Khanna, on September 15, 2022, said, "If there was a war on energy, how is Exxon, Chevron, BP, and Shell making over 200% profits? You can't have a war on an industry and then they're having record profits."
But every one of their statements was false.
Biden has leased far less federal land and off-shore waters for oil and gas production than any president since World War II, oil refiners are operating at maximum capacity, and Biden's EPA shut down a major oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands in May.
The number of weather-related natural disasters has been declining since this century, and the claim that climate change caused the war in Syria has been soundly and repeatedly debunked.
And, as I explained to Rep. Khanna during the September 15 Congressional hearing, big oil and gas companies have big profits precisely because the Biden administration and others have been stifling production, thereby reducing supplies, and increasing prices and profits.
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