The Obama Administration has agreed to loan 2 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars to Brazil for off-shore drilling, even though they won’t allow American off-shore drilling in the face of high gas and fuel prices. After Congress let a ban on off-shore drilling expire, environmentalists sued to block drilling in Alaska and in April a federal court ruled in their favor. In July the court said the earlier decision applied only to Alaska, opening the way for the sale of leases in the Gulf but not on the east or west coast.
The Wall Street Journal published an article on Aug. 18, 2009, revealing that the country that will benefit from this oil production will not be Brazil, nor America, but China. The company which will benefit from this endeavor is Petrobras, the Brazilian Oil Exploration Company which is the eighth largest oil company in the world. The U.S. Export-Import Bank says 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. The largest stock holder of Petrobras is George Soros, the “American” billionaire who was Mr. Obama’s largest campaign contributor. Mr. Soros’ actions may be perfectly legal. But what right does the administration have spending taxpayer money in Brazil when they refuse to allow oil exploration and production that will benefit America? Is this administration for the United States, or against it?
Myron Blaine
Hannibal
