After the weekend, Democratic President Joe Biden took some particularly nasty criticism for his administration’s decision to allow Chevron to continue oil drilling in socialist Venezuela.
The conservative restrictions put in place by the Trump administration in an attempt to overthrow socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro were reversed by the leftist Biden government.
U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) “granted Venezuela General License (G.L.) 41, permitting Chevron Corporation to continue restricted natural recurrence activity in Venezuela,” according to a statement released on November 26. The agreement prioritizes education, health, food security, flood response, and electricity programs for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.
According to a statement, the government has decided to “give targeted sanctions relief” to Venezuela in view of recent actions done by the Venezuelan government to help its people and “support the restoration of democracy.”
The government’s decision to temporarily lift sanctions against Venezuela will endure for six months, after which the decision may be reconsidered.
According to CNBC, Venezuela’s economy was damaged by the “state-run economic model” that “wasted the world’s biggest oil reserves” in 2019. The report found that with inflation at roughly 10,000,000%, many people in the country were going hungry. As of 2018, this has been a recurring issue.
The Biden administration has decided to relax sanctions on Venezuela in response to overwhelming criticism. Even though the government has long resisted approving any new drilling permits in the U.S., this has happened.
Former White House economic advisor Stephen Moore warned on Sunday that the move makes no sense and will put the United States at the bottom.
When I read the headline that claimed we were going to allow Chevron to drill in Venezuela, I nearly fell out of my chair, Moore said Fox News. They are the same people that have stopped drilling in Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, and West Virginia. And yet, we can extract oil from Venezuela. There is no logic to this. A dismal energy plan for the United States.
He said, “I backed Trump on energy policy, and our whole goal was to make America totally energy independent so we wouldn’t have to rely on nations like Venezuela, Iran, and Russia when Trump left office.” If anyone has any insight into this mystery, please let me know.