He's Back (again)

It is truly amazing - how, with almost every point of turmoil happening in the world today - sooner or later George Soros' name will appear. Today is no exception:

George Soros Handicapping American Energy

His latest effort is to try to weaken American energy companies and empower their overseas rivals by suing the Securities and Exchange Commission to draft laws that burden our companies-and leave foreign ones alone and untouched.

Billionaire investor George Soros is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to craft the "strongest" rules possible requiring oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments and urging against an exemption that Exxon and other companies are seeking.

In practice this is what would happen: American companies would not be able to reach deals to drill in foreign nations -- where much of the world's last undeveloped reserves are probably located.

Not only would it be against the law to meet the overseas competition's terms, but Soros would probably unleash his bevy of think tanks, 527 groups, human rights and monitoring groups to investigate American oil companies to ensure they have their hands tied.

This is just one of many similar examples:

I have written numerous columns regarding the actions George Soros has taken over the years to hurt American oil and gas companies. He has a vested interest (to the tune of at least a billion dollars) in trying to rig the system to make his "clean energy" investments pay off. Since these investments need oil and gas to be high-priced, anything he can do to harm the companies that bring this bounty to the surface help those green schemes.

If you aren't following the shale gas story - you should. There is a massive amount of shale gas that has become available in America - a clean, efficient source of energy - but apparently, this too must be stopped:

One of his favorites among the Soros-funded 527 Astroturf groups is MoveOn.Org, which recently protested against the development of shale gas, America's greatest hope to wean ourselves off of dependency on foreign sources of energy.

He has funded the Sundance Film Festival documentary effortsm and, voila! the festival lifted from obscurity a flawed documentary castigating developers of shale gas. Soros even even admitted that he saw Sundance documentaries as a method to bring about policy changes in America.

His comrades in arms Herbert and Marion Sandler founded and funded Pro Publica, a media machine that has a penchant for tendentious "exposes" on shale gas development. Of all the topics in America to focus on, why the one energy revolution that has brought abundant and cheap energy supplies to all Americans?

Soros' (and the Sandlers') pet think tank, the Center for American Progress (CAP), regularly advocates for restrictions on oil and gas development in America and promotes the very types of green schemes that Soros hopes will build up his fortune.

This represents just part of a long continuum of efforts to prevent America from becoming self-reliant when it comes to energy production - something that is obtainable and something that could prevent the US from being completely dependent on our enemies for our energy sources.

The party and the President have since taken actions that have drastically harmed our domestic energy industry (drilling moratoriums that were so egregious they merited a federal court judge's decision to hold the administration in contempt; sclerotic permitting processes, placing off-limits to leasing and drilling vast amounts of federal lands and offshore areas; trying to strip away tax benefits that encourage oil and drilling efforts -- tax deductions that have helped boost oil production and made oil and gas cheaper for all Americans; the list goes on and on).

Maybe people will start caring about this when they are in a gas line at 4:00 am, waiting for one of the few gas stations to open.
If you were alive and old enough to drive in the late 1970's, then you know what I'm talking about. Its too bad that it will probably come to this - I recall waiting in those long lines for hours - waiting for a few gallons of gas. It can happen again, and we seem determined to revisit those dark days.

Soros is now attempting to place American oil and gas companies at a disadvantage compared to foreign rivals, who will be more than happy to step up and work out deals with various foreign officials that will allow them to drill and develop while foreclosing the opportunities for American companies to do the same. If Soros were genuinely interested in preventing bribes and the like, why not use the United Nations to draft rules that apply universally? He certainly has friends at Turtle Bay.

George Soros' hedge funds are based in the Netherland Antilles and the Cayman Islands. His investors are not publicly disclosed. One can speculate that George Soros may very well have investors in his funds that would benefit from American oil companies being placed at a competitive disadvantage compared to foreign ones.

We will never know because Soros -- who advocates rules and regulations to restrict and weaken others, who advocates for transparency -- is quite content to keep his investors secret. Could they include Arab oil potentates? Could they include Russian oil barons and foreign governments who benefit from sky-high energy prices? Are Russian and Chinese oil companies investors in Soros's hedge funds?

The bottom line regarding Mr Soros?

Harming America, helping foreign rivals.

That seems to be a theme these days among the powers-that-be

Indeed.