The momentum among the countries of the world is to (finally) cut Russia off from their true currency and stop buying their oil.

The Biden administration definitely will be dragged into this, but if Nancy Pelosi’s “Dear Colleague” letter from yesterday is any indication, the administration will have no choice. In talking about Congress appropriating $10 billion for Ukraine, Pelosi included this note:

In addition, the House is currently exploring strong legislation that will further isolate Russia from the global economy. Our bill would ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the United States, repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, and take the first step to deny Russia access to the World Trade Organization. We would also empower the Executive branch to raise tariffs on Russian imports.”

She then noted that the Biden administration released 30 billion barrels of oil from our own Strategic Petroleum Reserves. If you looked at the price of gas this weekend, the news of that 30 billion barrels didn’t help at all.

Counting on the stupid Iran Deal to bring oil to the market is a joke. Elon Musk is not only encouraging a return to oil and gas production, he’s also pushing nuclear power as a clean and viable alternative – which it is!

So what is Team Biden doing? Going to VENEZUELA to try and offer an easing of sanctions for oil! *insert profanities here*

A group of senior U.S. officials flew to Venezuela on Saturday for a meeting with President Nicolás Maduro’s government to discuss the possibility of easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports as the Biden administration weighs a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas, according to two people familiar with the situation.”

The trip is the highest-level U.S. visit to the socialist state in years and comes as the United States is seeking to isolate Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Venezuela, the Kremlin’s most important ally in South America, used to be a significant supplier of crude to the United States before exports were hobbled by domestic mismanagement and crippling sanctions from Washington.”

In recent weeks, former American lawmakers have pushed for the U.S. to ban Russian oil and gas exports while lifting restrictions on Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves.”

Anyone remember when Donald Trump welcomed Juan Guaidó to the State of the Union in 2020? And now Joe Biden is sending his administration’s officials to Nicolas Maduro in order to bribe a dictator for his oil? Venezuela, the same country who is mighty cozy with Russia – even hosting Russian troops just to make sure Maduro could stay in power? Yes, this is a SWELL idea and absolutely NOTHING could go wrong.

For his part, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, was quite pointed in just how BAD an idea sucking up to Venezuela is – and just how much Team Biden wants to do it.

Biden Admin thinking they are going to pull #Venezuela away from #Russia by reaching out to the #MaduroRegime is a reminder that many of our so called career “foreign policy experts” are stupid people pic.twitter.com/muc3GyMlFw

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 7, 2022

#Biden secret talks with #MaduroRegime isn’t about replacing #Russia’s oil #Venezuela’s oil industry is an incompetent mess that produces 10% of what Russia exports

Ukraine is just an excuse for pro-leftist former Obama staffers who already wanted to get close to Maduro & Cuba

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 7, 2022

But would letting Venezuelan oil back into the United States actually help?

It’s unclear whether Saturday’s talks with Maduro officials will lead to any change in policy. But even if the U.S. were to ease the oil sanctions, Venezuela’s production would do very little to fill the gap left by Russian oil on the world market, said Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin American Energy Program at Rice University.”

While Venezuela has recently increased its oil production slightly, it is only producing about 10 percent of what Russia was exporting, according to Monaldi. “In the short term, Venezuela is irrelevant,” he said.”

It might help in the long term, but at what cost? As Rubio noted, this is just changing one dictator for another. And it doesn’t help drive down prices in the here and now? The rich and famous are happy to tell Americans to suck it up and pay higher prices in order to stick it to Russia, but you can only tell the average American to do that in an economy already dealing with inflation and staring down the barrel of “stagflation” for so long.

Team Biden knows they are holding the bag on this one. However, they are too chicken to tell their Green New Deal left to get lost, and they are so desperate to avoid the “red wave” that is incoming this November that they are willing to massage Maduro’s ego in hopes of getting some oil out of Venezuela. My odds are on the only oil that the Biden administration officials comes back with is the stuff in Maduro’s hair, and this exercise in humiliation will likely be for nothing.

I’d take a few “mean tweets” and the energy independence that came with it right about now.

Featured image via jp26jp on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license