The Biden administration on Sunday gave Chevron a new license to produce oil in Venezuela after the nation agreed to grant concessions to its people. However, President Joe Biden shut down the Keystone XL oil pipeline in January 2021, cutting off U.S. access to cleaner and more reliable Canadian fuel, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Treasury Department gave Chevron a six-month license to pump oil alongside state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro agreed to negotiate talks with his opposition to hold “free and fair elections.” However, just hours into his presidency, Biden revoked the permitting for the Keystone XL project to mitigate the “climate crisis,” even though the U.S. could have received at least 630,000 more barrels per day of cleaner Canadian oil via the canceled pipeline, experts told the DCNF. (RELATED: Biden Admin Allows Chevron To Pump Oil In Communist Venezuela)
“In terms of the overall carbon footprint from well to wheels, Venezuelan oil is much more carbon-intensive than Canadian oil which comes from bitumen sands,” Institute For Energy Research Senior Vice President Dan Kish told the DCNF.
Although Venezuela produces a type of “heavy sour” crude that is similar to Canadian oil, Venezuelan crude is more polluting than Canadian oil, according to a 2018 Stanford University study. Venezuelan crude produces about 20 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent per megajoule while Canadian oil produces roughly 18 grams of CO2 per megajoule.
White House National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby told reporters Monday that Chevron would ship oil to the U.S., which will increase the operation’s carbon footprint. Chevron’s joint venture with PDVSA will have the capacity to produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of December, according to Bloomberg.
The Keystone XL pipeline could have transported 830,000 barrels of Canadian oil into the U.S. each day, according to the government of Alberta.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro delivers a speech at the leaders’ summit of the COP27 climate conference at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre, in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of the same name, on November 8, 2022. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)
“The whole thing is disgusting … they are outsourcing U.S. emissions to other countries, meaning that they have not actually done anything to reduce global emissions,” Myron Ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s center for energy and environment, told the DCNF.
Ebell added that Venezuela is not a reliable oil supplier due to the regime’s rampant corruption and authoritarian tendencies which have weakened its ability to produce fuel.
A spokesperson for American Petroleum Institute told the DCNF that although the trade organization is urging the Biden administration to accelerate domestic oil and gas production, it also encourages the government to help U.S. companies conduct business overseas to help slash energy costs. Biden has previously demanded that domestic energy producers ramp up production; however, he has issued the fewest acres of land for federal oil and gas leasing since the 1940s, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The White House directed the DCNF to Kirby’s press conference comments.
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