NOTE: This article contains commentary that reflects the author’s opinion.
This April, Joe Biden sold nearly 1 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Chinese oil and gas company, Sinopec. This is highly suspicious as Hunter Biden’s Private Equity firm that he cofounded in 2013, BHR Partners, purchased a $1.7B stake in Sinopec in 2014.
Energy Expert and founder of Power the Future, Daniel Turner, had this to say, “This is pretty remarkable. Of all the gin joints in the world, of oil companies in the world, we chose to use one company in China that Hunter Biden is a part-owner and investor. You can argue the release of strategic petroleum reserves as a hedge on rising prices, and we have, and said it’s a terrible idea.”
Similarly, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson launched into an attack over the sale, saying that Biden should be impeached for making the sale. In his words:
“So, as gas prices set records in this country, as American citizens who were born here and vote and pay taxes cannot afford to fuel their own cars, the Biden administration is selling off our emergency oil reserves to China. That’s not an indictable offense? It’s certainly an impeachable one and they should impeach him for that.”
This poses a huge conflict of interest and should be congressionally investigated whether Hunter Biden profited from this transaction. However, these concerns are nothing new looking back to Hunter’s business dealings where he was paid millions from Ukrainian oil and gas company, Burisma, where he requested to “save 10% for the big guy” when Joe Biden was Vice President.
Aside from the possibility of corruption, we are compromising our domestic energy security by depleting our strategic reserves and sending it to countries such as Communist China. Biden announced in March that we would be selling nearly 1 million barrels of oil per day from our strategic reserves while there has been no decrease in the price of gasoline and no sign that it will decrease anytime soon.
By: MacroConservative
Editor’s addition: to be fair and provide the other side of the argument, which is that the sale was not corrupt and might have in fact been required by US law, here’s what Politifact says:
Experts in the international oil markets, however, told PolitiFact that the sales were governed by U.S. law, and they see no way that the Biden family could have influenced or benefited from the sales.
“It’s a political talking point, and a ridiculous one,” said Patrick De Haan, a vice president with GasBuddy, which tracks gasoline prices.
[…]
Experts said it’s reasonable to ask why, if the U.S. is trying to lower prices at the pump back home, it would sell oil to overseas companies. But these experts offered a straightforward answer: That’s the law, and that’s how the international oil market works.
De Haan compared the longstanding Strategic Petroleum Reserve process to an “eBay auction for crude oil.”
When an administration orders the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, “the Department of Energy puts out a notice of sale that alerts companies that oil will be made available for purchase,” said Hugh Daigle, a professor in the University of Texas-Austin Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. “Companies then bid competitively on the oil, and the winning bidders receive the oil and the bid price.” The winning company works out with the Energy Department when and how it will take possession of the oil.
Sometimes the winning bidders may be U.S. refiners, Daigle said, in which case the oil quickly boosts U.S. gasoline supplies. But in other cases, he said, foreign companies win the bid. This increases the supply of global crude oil and, eventually, helps lower prices in the United States.
Which argument do you find more convincing? Comment below to let us know!
This story syndicated with permission from Gen Z Conservative