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Investors.com
Obama Stalls U.S.
Energy Independence, Enemies Smile
Energy Security: Do America’s enemies wish us well? It’s an important
question because they’ve made a big push to halt U.S. energy
production. So why does the Obama administration’s policies support
their aims? Energy is the lifeblood of the mighty U.S. economy, and it
ought to surprise no one that America’s enemies know this. One way to
neutralize the U.S. is to hurt its ability to produce its own energy.
Don’t think it’s not happening — it is, in a shockingly large variety
of ways, by a number of enemies, ranging from China to self-described
“stateless statesman” George Soros, whose loyalty is to global
socialism, not the U.S.
This week, the Department of Homeland Security warned that
cybercriminals were mounting new attacks on U.S. gas line
infrastructure. Based on past such attacks, it’s likely the work of the
Chinese military.
Their latest “spear-phishing” attacks to steal passwords sought to
gather information about planned new gas production facilities and
contract bids, useful strategic information for a bad actor.
About the same time, Canadian political leaders accused Soros of
secretly funding Tides Canada, a Vancouver-based far-left foundation
that bankrolls radicals working to halt oil sands development in
Canada. Tides Canada is now under investigation by Canadian tax
authorities for clandestinely taking funds from “foreign funded radical
groups,” a violation of Canadian law.
Soros is known to fund Tides in the U.S., so there is at least an
indirect link. What’s a sure thing is that someone didn’t want the
U.S.’ top energy supplier to produce more oil and gas.
This happens too as Canada’s TransCanada is proposing to end 40% of
U.S. overseas oil dependency with its Keystone XL pipeline. Both Tides
Canada and the Obama administration have lined up against it.
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It gets worse. Last January, Venezuela’s consul general in Miami, Livia
Acosta, was thrown out of the U.S. for plotting cyberattacks on U.S.
nuclear installations with Iran, another critical element of U.S.
energy security.
Venezuelan petrotyrant Hugo Chavez’s Foundation National Cinematheque
bankrolled a scurrilous anti-fracking documentary called “Gasland” that
was nominated for an Academy Award, exploiting Hollywood’s leftist
gullibility.
The meritless anti-fracking documentary also was screened in the
Environmental Protection Agency by Al Armendariz, the EPA official who
resigned last week after declaring his “philosophy” of environmental
enforcement was to “crucify” oil companies.
Hillary Clinton’s State Department also showcased the anti-energy
propaganda film. Why is the U.S. paying any attention at all to
Chavista propaganda?
Meanwhile, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin blasted U.S. oil
companies for “hiding” information about their fracking innovations.
Putin told Russia’s Duma that fracking will “seriously” shape the
global energy market — and not to his, or Russia’s, advantage.
“National energy companies, obviously, must respond to these
challenges,” he warned. In other words, fracking, particularly in
Europe with U.S. know-how, threatens the oil and gas earnings that give
Putin and his dictatorship its power and leverage over Europe.
No wonder he thinks fracking is a threat.
Saudi Arabia is out to undermine U.S. energy independence, too.
In the mid-1990s, before Chavez, Saudi Arabia undercut a U.S. plan to
make Venezuela the top U.S. oil supplier by knocking oil to $10 a
barrel. At that price, Venezuela could not produce at a profit,
triggering the conditions that led to the 1998 election of Chavez, who
favors tight production and high prices.
It all adds up to a pattern out there of bad foreign actors seeking to
undercut U.S. energy security.
They’re out there. What’s astounding is the Obama administration seems
often to be in sync with them.
Energy security is more than technology and supply, as conventional
wisdom has it — it’s our freedom to innovate and produce. They’re
trying to stop that.
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