Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, 2015, Springer]
House 114–12. February 3, 2015. The strategic importance of the western hemisphere defining U.S. interests in the region. 114thcongress House of Representatives. 81 pages
Jeff Duncan, South Carolina
Venezuela’s unstable situation, deteriorating economic conditions with major shortages and inflation at over 60 percent, declining oil production and human rights abuses also require sustained U.S. attention.
Energy opportunities abound in the region today. I am excited about the potential for U.S. energy exports from our neighbors in the hemisphere. I believe we can do so much more on the energy front. The Western Hemisphere is home to nearly a third of the world’s oil and the region has nearly 337 billion barrels of estimated recovery in oil, and 20 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves.
The abundance of U.S. reserves in oil and natural gas and shale gas resources, the capability to export, liquefy and compress natural gas and the administration’s recent announcement of offshore drilling in the Atlantic, the U.S. has many reasons to partner with like-minded countries who seek to spur economic growth, achieve energy security, and reduce energy cost.
In the 113th Congress, I authored legislation to implement the Outer Continental Shelf Trans Boundary Hydrocarbon Agreement between Mexico and the United States.
Venezuela’s dire situation, resulting impact on its Petrocaribe program, has caused 18 Central American and Caribbean nations that receive its oil on preferential terms to look elsewhere for energy security. The U.S. is a natural partner for these policies.
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