Within 48 hours after President Obama issued the six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling, the George Soros-backed Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, contacted a large New Orleans company, Laborde Marine, which services the deep-water drilling market. The company was seeking to lease all its vessels.

“If the moratorium on deep-water drilling is not lifted, 33 semi-submersible rigs and/or drill ships affected will simply go to other countries where they will be well received, such as Brazil,” Cliffe F. Laborde and J. Peter Laborde, Jr. wrote in a June 4 letter to their Louisiana Senators.

Could this be merely a happy coincidence for George Soros, the major financial backer of Obama’s presidential campaign who also has $811 million invested in the Brazilian oil company, Petrobras? Wasn’t it enough of a payback to Soros when the Obama Administration loaned up to $10 billion to Petrobras? Soros, with his far left-wing organization, MoveOn, is called the Godfather of world socialism. But most relevant currently is that he has been an enthusiastic proponent of global warming and environmental liberalism. He has urged adoption of a global carbon tax. Could it be more than coincidence that his position is strikingly similar to what Obama called for in his June 14 Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil spill and future energy actions?

“Seizing on the widening calamity in the Gulf of Mexico, to push for legislation he had advocated [a carbon tax] since his campaign” a New York Times article noted. “Mr. Obama said he was willing to look for approaches from Republicans as well as Democrats….” Obama delivered the speech the evening before he was to meet with British Petroleum top executives to demand that they agree to the creation of a multi-billion dollar escrow account to pay claims stemming from the disaster when the company’s rig blew up and spewed oil into the Gulf.

The moratorium could mean the loss of at least 20,000 jobs, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wrote in a letter to Obama. “The last thing we need is to enact public policies that will certainly destroy thousands of existing jobs while preventing the creation of thousands more,” Jindal’s statement said. Each drilling platform idled by the ban puts 1,400 jobs at risk, according to the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), a group of drillers and companies that support oil production. Lost wages could reach $10 million a month for each rig, according to Jangal. NOIA has said: ”The offshore industry is responsible for nearly 200,000 jobs in the Gulf of Mexico alone, and provides 30 percent of our nation’s domestic oil production….[W]e must be careful not to make things worse.”

The Labordes, in their letter to their senators, wrote: “To shut down the entire industry is overkill and analogous to shutting down all commercial air traffic after one plane crash due to pilot error.” The Labordes also wrote,

Over the last three years, we have built in U.S. shipyards or acquired new U.S. built and flagged vessels primarily designed to service the deep water drilling market. We own and/or operate 21 vessels. Our annual payroll is over $14 million. Now, the U.S. government is telling us to simply ‘park’ our vessels for at least six months. Never in the history of the United States has the government decided to shut down an entire industry for six months. That decision seems to be a knee-jerk reaction based on an emotional response to the spill, and made without a full appreciation of the consequences which will adversely impact tens of thousands of hard working people who are engaged in the industry. It is a decision that advances the Administration’s agenda for transferring to a clean/alternative energy economy, but at an enormous cost to the thousands of us engaged in offshore exploration and development.
If the moratorium on deep water drilling is not lifted, the 33 semi-submergible rigs and/or drill ships will simply go to other countries where they will be well received [and] will not return to the Gulf of Mexico for years if ever. The damage to our industry will be irreversible….For us to move internationally, we will have to compete with vessels built in foreign yards at a much lower cost and often subsidized by foreign governments. It will not be a level playing field. The moratorium may well be the death-knell for U.S. businesses engaged in the energy service sector….While alternative energy is a laudable goal, it will be decades before alternative fuels make a dent in our county’s needs….This is the United States of America, where reason and sound judgment have always been the foundation of our system of government—not poorly thought-out and capricious reactions that destroy the livelihoods of thousands of its citizens in order to promote a partisan political agenda….”

By siding with liberal Democrats who oppose off-shore drilling or even much safer drilling on the continent, Obama is costing the nation trillions in revenues and scores of thousands of new jobs. Meanwhile, his pal and sponsor, George Soros will see his investment in Brazil’s Petrobras turn a pretty profit when oil prices rise, as surely they will if U.S. resources are not tapped. The American Petroleum Institute estimates that we have U.S. resources to generate nearly 160,000 new, well-paying jobs and $1.7 trillion in revenues to federal, state, and local governments, with $1.3 trillion from offshore drilling alone.

The Real Cost of Obama's Drill Ban

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

By Glenn Beck

A temporary moment of good news: A U.S. district court judge has ruled in favor of ending a six-month moratorium on drilling for oil in deepwater. The ruling just came down in New Orleans a few hours ago. Moments later, the White House said they would appeal it.

Do you remember when the president had this to say at the State of the Union address?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interest, including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our election. I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps correct some of these problems.

When I heard that, it kind of reminded me of FDR. When the Supreme Court started striking down the new deal, he targeted four senior members of the court, and tried to add four new ones to "pack" it and circumvent the efforts of those that opposed the new deal.

This is nothing new for progressives. They jam things down your throat, cut deals, and if that doesn't work, they jam it through the court system. Watch him dismantle the court system, but celebrate while you can.

Yesterday I showed you this. It's like a circle of organized crime, but it's also something more. It's a death sentence for two reasons:

1. Energy

2. Corruption

Let's start with energy. Why did the U.S. prosper after World War II? For a number of reasons; no one worked harder than Americans.

While the Frenchy Frenchmen were working 11 hours a week and retiring at 38, we were grinding it out. We had the biggest dreamers and the brightest entrepreneurs, and we had a country that gave them the best possible platform to let their ideas and their imaginations reach their potential: the free market system.

The other important key was cheap energy. We had the technology and we used it —by 1957 the first nuke plant was created. Compare that with today — do we still have the hardest workers? Yup. The best dreamers? Yup. Entrepreneurs? Yes. Is the free market engine still running? No. Companies are beholden to the almighty unions, and when the unions drag a company down to its knees, the government steps in and takes control, micromanaging and crippling the company even more. And what about energy? Not only is it expensive, but we have an administration who is actively trying to make it more expensive! Not my words, his:

OBAMA: Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.

Who thinks that's a good idea? They're going to shove us into alternative energies that aren't ready yet. It's like being forced to drive over a bridge before it's been completed; it'll be great when it's done, but try to cross it now and you'll plummet to certain death.

Look at the destruction this six-month moratorium on drilling is and will continue to cause if the court doesn't stop it. Drilling suspension alone will result in a loss of 3,000 to 6,000 Louisiana jobs in the first two to three weeks and possibly over 10,000 in a few months; when the entire country is only creating about 40,000 non-government jobs. How could this president do something to cripple us further?

The state risks losing more than 20,000 jobs over the next year and a half. Tighter supply leads to higher prices, some say $150 a barrel and $4 gallon gas are on the way and Harvard is saying $7 a gallon with cap-and-trade. Thirty-three oil rigs are now being fought over for anyone to use but us.

No politician is listening to you. Let them know you want the madness to stop. Block this attempt. Mr. President, you have your out, you fought and the court decided. This cannot be dragged out, if they do that it's over anyway. It needs to be decided now.

Given the extremely negative effect this drilling ban will have, is it any wonder that the people of Louisiana are upset with the way this president has handled the crisis? Polls show they believe Bush would handle this better, and only 32 percent think Obama's doing a good job.

That's partly because they want the drilling to continue by a narrow 77 percent to 12 percent margin. Even 60 percent of Louisiana Obama supporters want the drilling to continue, and the facts back up the sentiment.

There have been over 50,000 wells drilled in the Gulf of Mexico, over 4,000 of them deepwater wells and 700 ultra-deepwater wells; all this with no major incidents until now. That is a 99.998 percent success ratio. But they are going to punish Louisiana anyway. They have invested over $150 million for its fleet of vessels that are now being shut down for six months. When in the history of the country has an entire industry been shut down for six months? Why do it now? It doesn't make any sense. But this isn't the first time the administration has defied logic and public will.

Over 60 percent opposed health care; 63 percent support the Arizona immigration law that the president is about to sue the state over. And now this. Why?

That brings me to corruption. With 33 rigs about to be put out of commission, one company that contracts their oil rig vessels (Laborde Marine) received a call. And it didn't take long till the call came in; only 48 hours after Obama issued the drilling moratorium. One guess who that call came from: Petrobras. Yes, that's right, the George Soros heavily-backed Brazilian state run oil company Petrobras wants to lease the unused rigs. Here's how Governor Jindal responded to the 6-month ban:

GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL, R-LA.: This isn't about the multinational companies. They're going to pick up and they're going to move those rigs. They're going to move those rigs to Brazil. They'll move those rigs to Africa. They'll move those rigs to other countries and they won't come back for years. Once they're gone, once they're contracted somewhere else, they're not coming back.

It costs at least $10 million to move the rigs, so it's unlikely they'd find their way back if they are leased. The jobs won't ever come back. How about that. The same company that the administration was willing to loan $2 billion dollars to, a company with vast resources, $15 billion in profits a year at least, will make off with our rigs. They are planning to invest 95 percent of $224 billion they plan to spend on exploration back into Brazil. So what's in it for us? Nothing!

But there's something in it for the players in Crime Inc. George Soros had at one time $900 million invested in Petrobras. And before you dismiss the connection, look at how much influence Soros' Center for American Progress (CAP) has on this administration.

Soros wants wind and solar: Obama uses CAP to spin against damaging facts.

Soros wants a smart grid: Obama (through GE) wants it too, and California passed a bill that requires the Public Utilities Commission to develop a plan for Smart Grid use

Soros has suggested the president should have nationalized the banks. In the House bill, "Regulators would have the power to stop banks on a case-by-case basis from risky activities."

They want to ban corporate influence on campaign commercials? What about the influence one guy is having through Media Matters (smear campaigns), CAP (public policy), Tides (indoctrination).

Forget God, it's in George we trust. He's gonna get his. This isn't about saving the planet. They tell us global warming is a moral issue; well how can he justify drilling in Brazil? The same people who claim to be the earth's saviors are raping the earth, so please, spare me the lecture on my SUV and filling up the air in my tires. I'm sick of the Al Gore's of the world telling me to drive a crappy 'Smart' car (doesn't look all that smart, or safe, to drive one). And I'm sick of them telling me to inflate my tires before every time I drive, when they have multiple mansions and fleets of SUVs. Stop telling me what to do and who to be like.

Hillary Clinton said we need to be like Brazil:

SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere. And guess what? It's growing like crazy. And the rich are getting richer, but they're pulling people out of poverty. There is a certain formula there that used to work for us until we abandoned it; to our regret, in my opinion.

Here's a news flash, Hillary: I don't want to be like Brazil! Why the hell would we want to be Brazil? Yeah, I know they have the beaches, the bikinis, and the statue of Jesus, but what's life there really like? One in four live below the poverty line. And believe me, their poverty line ain't your poverty line. Our poverty line is no HD or no DVR. Theirs is going to the bathroom in a ditch. And what about crime? It's rapidly rising, and the murder rates are four times that of the United States. A human rights expert from the U.N. writes:

"Many Brazilians, especially inhabitants of shanty towns, continue to be subject to murder and other forms of brutal violence by various gangs, militias, death squads and the police, despite efforts by the government to end the crimes...There were at least 11,000 so-called resistance killings in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro between 2003 and 2009....many of these killings were actually executions."

I've got a friend who does business in Brazil and spends a lot of time there. He's had to hire a security team because cars like his down there are riddled with bullet holes. Here's what happens on a regular basis in the cities:

Wow, Hillary, when can we be like Brazil? It looks great. And that's where we are 'investing' our money while people here on our own shores are suffering. And the spill is bad enough, but the drill ban is the nail in the coffin.

We used to inspire the world with our pursuits of the unknown and our exploration. It's in our blood. America was discovered on an amazing, daring exploration. We led the global space race, the searching of the seas, the quest for energy and oil. Americans don't want to sit around and wait for others to do it. That's not who we are, but apparently that's who the president wants you to be.

Does anyone really believe the world will like us better by chopping America down to size? Do you think the people we are supposedly 'lifting up' out of poverty will care about the rain forest? We care because we are blessed and fortunate enough to have vast resources; our bellies are full, our kids are fed. So we can spend time caring about distant forests. Do you think Brazil will care about it? China? They'll cut the rain forest and they'll eat every spotted owl for lunch and import polar bear for dinner if they have to, because they're hungry.

You aren't saving a rain forest or the earth with this ban. All you are doing is making a rich progressive even richer, and punishing Americans at the same time.

— Watch "Glenn Beck" weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on Fox News Channel

Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling ...Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.

Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling ...Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil.

Now here's the real clincher...the Chinese government is under contract to purchase all the oil that this oil field will produce, which is hundreds of millions of barrels"..

We have absolutely no gain from this transaction whatsoever!

Wait, it gets more interesting.

Soros’s Oil Spill Payoff

The Real Cost of Obama's Drill Ban

OBAMA: Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.

Make no mistake, this was a war speech.