| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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All-Hands-on-Deck Protection
00:09:40
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| We are all working across the clock to make sure that people have the resources that they need, that they get to know your rights training, that we expedite documentation for them to carry around so they feel protected. | ||
| We are also exploring different kinds of policies and laws that we have on the books, whether it's on a local municipal level or whether it is on a state level. | ||
| This is an all-hands-on-deck process, and in Minnesota, we know how to protect one another. | ||
| I have been incredibly, incredibly proud the way our neighbors have shown up for one another. | ||
| It's been beautiful to see, and that kind of resistance is why ICE agents seem so angry and agitated because they have never experienced the kind of love that we experience here in Minnesota. | ||
| And we know that they are going to disappear one day, but we will be here caring for one another and carrying out policy with love here in Minnesota. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you all. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| You've been watching live coverage. | ||
| We return now to our scheduled program. | ||
| We joined it in progress. | ||
| What are the oil companies looking for in terms of whether or not they would invest? | ||
| Is that security guarantees? | ||
| Is that financial guarantees? | ||
| I mean, what do you believe that they would want from the White House? | ||
| And what is the White House offering, really? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| So in Venezuela, the risks are not, let's put it this way, below ground. | ||
| So Venezuela has plenty of oil resources. | ||
| Even though the infrastructure is in decay, it has a lot of infrastructure. | ||
| The country was producing twice as much as it is producing today just less than a decade ago. | ||
| So those are not the issues in Venezuela. | ||
| The technical issues can be solved and if you attract significant amounts of money, everything can be not only resolved, but it could be really profitable. | ||
| The question mark. | ||
| And that is what has been the issue in this country. | ||
| And Exxon knows it very well because Exxon was the leading oil producer in Venezuela throughout the history of the country since the 1920s until oil was nationalized in 1976 initially. | ||
| And they came back in the 1990s when they were invited back. | ||
| And both times, their contracts didn't run through its maturity. | ||
| They basically were forcefully renegotiated and eventually they were expropriated. | ||
| So these are the types of issues that these companies would have to be considering. | ||
| But it's important to notice that there are different types of projects. | ||
| And as I mentioned, for example, a company like Chevron that is already there, they are having a significant cash flow from their Venezuelan operations. | ||
| So they don't have to risk that much because they already have the investment, the most significant investments in infrastructure done. | ||
| They are just reinvesting part of the cash flow. | ||
| And so for them, the risks are not that significant. | ||
| So they might be willing to take the risk of not knowing exactly how this is going to work out, how long is the U.S. going to be involved in this? | ||
| Is this regime currently in place credible or are they going to be in place in a few years? | ||
| All those questions are difficult to answer, but for Chevron, it's a little bit less risky. | ||
| For others that have to put fresh capital, that have to sign new contracts that are not at all involved in the country right now, like Exxon, Conoco, and most of the others, because there's only one American company currently operating in Venezuela. | ||
| For those, the questions are much, much harder. | ||
| Perhaps some short-term projects that can bring very quickly returns might be feasible without lower risks. | ||
| But for the big projects, like the Exxon types of projects, we're talking about projects that have maturities of 20 to 40 years. | ||
| So they cannot make investments of billions of dollars without understanding what risks they're facing. | ||
| Yeah, yesterday the Exxon CEO basically committed to sending in an assessment team to go see the fields, basically to try to get a first glance as to whether or not it would be possible to reinvest. | ||
| And to your point, the Conoco executive said that they lost $12 billion when Venezuela renationalized their oil fields. | ||
| I wonder though, the president said yesterday that they would provide security guarantees. | ||
| Historically, if there is precedent, what have those looked like or what do you think that the oil companies would ask for in terms of security? | ||
| Well, I mean, the main thing is the credibility of the contracts being respected. | ||
| And of course, since we're talking about long periods of time, the question is what types of guarantees the U.S. government can offer. | ||
| I mean, they can offer, for example, in the past, historically, there had been insurance, for example, to expropriation. | ||
| The U.S. government has offered that to some companies. | ||
| So perhaps that's a possibility. | ||
| But the bottom line is that countries are sovereign and eventually, I mean, the United States cannot have an Armada in front of Venezuela indefinitely. | ||
| And so what these companies will assess is that Venezuela in the past had committed to respect contracts, but they eventually were not respected. | ||
| And CONOCO, for example, went for international arbitration. | ||
| They got an award, as was mentioned, about $12 billion. | ||
| And Venezuela has only paid a tiny fraction of that. | ||
| So the risks are very real in the long term. | ||
| For a relatively short period of time, for example, for President Trump's administration, which are the next three years, for example, they might feel secure because they have the guarantees of this administration. | ||
| But for the longer term, perhaps mechanisms like insurance against extropiation by the U.S. government could reduce some of the risks. | ||
| Let's turn to some calls. | ||
| Jason from Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, and Independent. | ||
| Your line is open. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I just have a couple comments and a question. | ||
| Back in 2023, if y'all can put it up there, too, after this phone conversation is over with at some point, Donald Trump said about Venezuela oil that their oil was garbage, that it's the worst you can get. | ||
| It's like tar. | ||
|
unidentified
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And things. | |
| How confident are you that there will be a fair and thorough federal investigation into Agent Ross that could lead to potentially charges? | ||
| I think folks at the state level are not confident that the feds will do a thorough investigation that could be the charges. | ||
| Well, sadly, I have no confidence at all. | ||
| And regardless, the American people in Minnesotans don't have confidence in it. | ||
| Even if it is an investigation that is objective, we're not going to believe it here, right? | ||
| So, we need to have our local authorities, our local officials, investigators involved in this process. | ||
| Look, you know, what we tried to tell ICE officials this morning is that they're making Minnesota less safe in the way that they are policing our streets. | ||
| They do not have any experience in urban policing, and it is incredibly dangerous what's happening in the state right now. | ||
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unidentified
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What can you say about the mayor's comment that the Minneapolis police are outgunned and outmanned by ICE? | |
| Some people are really concerned by that statement. | ||
| What does it mean for the city and the state? | ||
| Well, the idea that there are around 600 officers, peace officers in Minneapolis, and we're looking at something like 3,000 ICE officers around the state of Minnesota. | ||
| And remember, this isn't just happening in Minneapolis. | ||
| Many of my communities are seeing an increased ICE presence in the second district as well. | ||
| The community is scared, and you know, it's just not who we are as Minnesotans. | ||
| These agents do not know how to police. | ||
| And, you know, ICE officials, they don't know how to obey the law in any way or fashion. | ||
| This morning proved that, that they will not allow us to do our duties as members of Congress. | ||
|
unidentified
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What do you say to people who want to be out there? | |
|
Venezuela's Oil Challenge
00:15:47
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unidentified
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You've been watching live coverage. | |
| We return. | ||
| now to our scheduled program? | ||
| We join it in progress. | ||
| These are high-cost fields, and Venezuela's fields are lower-cost. | ||
| So, that could be a challenge because we already are seeing a lot of companies in the U.S. having trouble with the current price of oil. | ||
| At the same time, and he pointed out to what the president said about the type of oil that Venezuela has. | ||
| This is a very similar type of oil that what Canada has. | ||
| As he pointed out, heavy oil, very dense and viscous, and it's a type of oil that it's challenging to transport and challenging to process. | ||
| But the positive side for the United States is that the U.S. Gulf Coast refineries were optimized for this type of oil. | ||
| Because remember, the U.S. used to be a massive net importer of oil, and now it's a net exporter. | ||
| So, it's a very different reality from like two decades ago. | ||
| But in summary, the U.S. does export a lot of light oil, but imports some of this heavy oil that Venezuela produces. | ||
| And in the Gulf Coast, the one from Canada cannot reach, you know, it's costly to get it there because the famous Keystone XL pipeline was never built. | ||
| That was going to bring 800,000 barrels of Canadian oil to the Gulf Coast. | ||
| So, bottom line, this is a type of oil that American refiners like, and that will lead them to have more profitability, etc. | ||
| But to close, I think the other important factor that the caller mentioned is that, you know, what precedents is this establishing in terms of the way International policy is conducted. | ||
| And of course, this opens up a variety of questions about what other countries in the world might think that they can do if this type of action is allowed. | ||
| And that opens a lot of important international relations questions. | ||
| I mean, do oil companies want Americans to have cheaper gas? | ||
| I mean, it seems that it would kind of cut into their net gains or something like that. | ||
| Obviously, gas right now is anywhere between 280 to the ones in some places across the country, according to the president yesterday. | ||
| So gas is pretty low. | ||
| Obviously, it'd be an incentive for the White House for gas to be lower, but is that an incentive for the oil companies who would profit off of and theoretically profit less off of that? | ||
| Yeah, no, definitely it's not attractive for U.S. oil companies producing in the U.S. territory to have that type of price of oils that we're seeing now. | ||
| It's very challenging for their profitability. | ||
| And that's why some are basically have stopped investing, and there have been a lot of people fired because of that slowdown sort of in investment. | ||
| So it is a challenging environment for them. | ||
| Of course, at the same time, if they are offered opportunities, some of these companies in a place like Venezuela that has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, that does open a potential source of profitability because Venezuela has lower costs than the United States. | ||
| The reason is just simply because they have fields that are by nature easy to extract. | ||
| The quality of the oil is not the same as the U.S., is less valuable in the market, but they could make a profit. | ||
| So there is a clear trade-off, as you point out, between lower gasoline prices and profitability for oil companies. | ||
| And just to summarize, this country changed from being a country that was a net importer of oil for many decades. | ||
| So when the price of oil went down in net terms, the United States benefited because the country was a net importer. | ||
| But now that it's a net exporter, the question is more complex. | ||
| Some regions of the U.S. benefit when the price of oil goes down and consumers do benefit, but some other regions are affected when it goes down and companies are also affected negatively. | ||
| Jacob from Salem, New Hampshire, and Independent, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
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I was just wondering, like, Maduro already said that he could talk about stopping the drug trade, but we still went after him. | |
| I feel like everyone kind of brushed past that very quickly, but like we've angered a lot of countries, and I don't know who's going to buy oil. | ||
| Also, like, what's our right to just take a president out of his country? | ||
| Like, what if China or Russia did that to us? | ||
| No one would be happy. | ||
| And I feel like we did something like really kind of bad. | ||
| I don't know who's going to buy the oil. | ||
| I don't know what's going to happen. | ||
| Yes, I think, of course, again, there are tons of angles here. | ||
| And I'm an energy expert, but I can tell you that Mr. Maduro was a ruthless dictator that committed many significant human rights violations, stole the previous election. | ||
| But as you point out, that doesn't mean necessarily that another government can go and take him out. | ||
| But without a doubt, there were a variety of reasons why countries around Venezuela and the US were very concerned about what the type of regime that is ruling Venezuela, because Maduro is out, but basically the regime is otherwise intact. | ||
| And of course, there were issues of crime, drug trafficking, et cetera. | ||
| But lately, what we have seen is more a discussion about the motivation being related to oil. | ||
| And of course, again, this opens up a lot of questions about how international relations are conducted and the rights of countries to do different things. | ||
| And even though the administration has said that the new Monroe Doctrine that the U.S. will not allow foreign geopolitical rivals to have influence in this region, that opens up, without a doubt, some considerations of what other geopolitical powers might do in their own backyards. | ||
| Penny from Augusta, Georgia, a Democrat, you're next. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
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Penny from Augusta. | |
| My question is, it's more of a comment, but what right do we have to go in and start talking about what we're going to do with Venezuela's oil? | ||
|
unidentified
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It's not our oil. | |
| It belongs to that country. | ||
|
unidentified
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We have no business being there. | |
| But I don't care how bad Maduro was. | ||
| We had no business raiding another country for their assets. | ||
| If we went and raided the UK, could Trump be talking about what he's going to do with the crown jewels? | ||
| If we raided Paris, could Trump talk about what he's going to do with the artworks on the Louvre? | ||
| It's not our stuff. | ||
|
unidentified
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It's not our oil. | |
| Yeah, I mean, of course, the argument that President Trump and the administration have mentioned on the oil side is that Venezuela has sort of stolen from some U.S. oil companies. | ||
| And just briefly, to mention a little bit of the historical background, it is true that oil companies, by the way, not just American, but other companies like Shell from the UK, were nationalized in Venezuela in 1976. | ||
| But they were compensated at the time. | ||
| And what they had were contracts, concessions that allowed them to extract the oil and pay royalties and taxes for a specific period of time. | ||
| And that period of time was going to expire a few years after 1976 in 1983. | ||
| So what they were compensated were for these remaining years. | ||
| And it's also true that they were invited back and then President Chavez basically forcefully renegotiated the deals and significantly increased taxes. | ||
| And basically two companies, Conoco and Exxon, did not accept that. | ||
| They were awarded by international arbitration tribunals a significant amount of money, but Venezuela wasn't willing to pay it. | ||
| But as the caller points out, that doesn't necessarily mean that a country can go and try to take back the resources because what these companies have are awards that require Venezuela to pay them a certain amount of money. | ||
| And there are many other creditors, by the way. | ||
| Venezuela owes $150 billion. | ||
| So it's not just oil companies, but bondholders and contractors and a variety of other creditors that are owed money. | ||
| And that is one of the big issues now. | ||
| How do you restructure that debt and make sure that some of it can be paid by the country? | ||
| Now, something that I asked the president yesterday was: how do they plan to distribute the money that they would receive from Venezuela oil sales back to Venezuela? | ||
| An administration official told me that they basically plan to make direct payments from those U.S.-controlled accounts to Venezuela. | ||
| But I wonder, I know you're not a law expert, but is there any precedent for this? | ||
| Because the question is whether or not that would run afoul of congressional appropriation laws or international law? | ||
| Yeah, I think there are a few parallels in the modern era. | ||
| One that comes to mind is the oil for food program in Iraq. | ||
| When the United Nations sanctioned Saddam Hussein's government, basically they banned Iran from exporting oil, and that led to a lot of hardship for the people in Iraq. | ||
| And so eventually, the United Nations decided to implement a program by which Iraq could export some oil, but the money will not go to the Iraqi government, but will go to the UN. | ||
| And then the UN will do the work of bringing imports back into Iraq, for example, food or medicine or other basic needs. | ||
| And of course, this was not implemented by the U.S. | ||
| It was implemented with the cooperation of the U.S., but not by the U.S., but by a United Nations group. | ||
| And it was controversial because there was a lot of corruption eventually, because it's very hard to manage a program that has to take billions of dollars in oil export revenue and then allocate it to, for example, fruit producers from the US or if you are investing in the electricity infrastructure, providers of inputs for that. | ||
| And who decides who gets paid, what is done, et cetera, is a very complex issue that requires a lot of effort and could be a source of potential corruption. | ||
| So it is going to be a very complex task for Secretary Rubio and the Department of State to implement such a program. | ||
| And quickly, some questions that we have on Twitter and text message. | ||
| Sue B from Whiting, New Jersey says, oil and drugs. | ||
| Is that what the economy of Venezuela is built on? | ||
| Well, Venezuela is highly dependent on oil, north of 85% of the revenues of the countries come from oil. | ||
| And in the last few couple of decades, unfortunately, drug trafficking, particularly as a sort of exit for drugs coming from Colombia, in particular cocaine, has become a part of the sort of illegal economy of Venezuela. | ||
| And the Venezuelan military and government have been involved in transporting those drugs typically to the Caribbean and then to Europe or the United States. | ||
| And that's precisely the indictment that Nicolas Maduro faces in New York is about drug trafficking. | ||
| So that was clearly a concern of the US government for many, many years, as other issues about illegal activity and the involvement of Iran and other geopolitical rivals of the US in the country financing illicit activities. | ||
| And more recently, it was a lot of it was about the oil being sold in the black market going to China that also created all sorts of corrupt activities. | ||
| Steve from Mississippi and Independent, your line is open. | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh, yes. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I guess just to follow up on some of the comments about the price of the oil and such, I've worked in the refining industry. | ||
| I do know that this oil is very expensive to produce, to get it out of the ground, to partially process it, to get it ready to even ship to other areas to refineries. | ||
| How's the current low cost of crude at the current prices going to affect the profitability of the, you know, to make it worthwhile to even produce it? | ||
| So the oil companies go down there and invest all this money and to get it all going again. | ||
| I mean, if the price of crude drops much more, this stuff is just about, especially the extra heavy crude, it almost becomes unprofitable to actually warrant even going in there and doing it. | ||
| Another question I have is about the Venezuela, with so many people in Venezuela having left over the recent years, is there a concern about brain drain from that country and having people that could actually operate these facilities once they get them going again? | ||
|
Potential Profitability Issues
00:01:29
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| Yeah, those are really good questions. | ||
| You know, different from the Canadian oil, the Venezuelan extra heavy is relatively easy to extract. | ||
| The cost of extraction are, the lifting costs are less than $10. | ||
| But as you point out, then the transportation and then the refining is costlier and they are sold at a discount, those barrels, compared to the lighter oil. | ||
| So there is potentially an issue of profitability, particularly depending on the tax and royalty regime that Venezuela would be implementing. | ||
| But my calculations indicate that if the price of oil goes to even lower to about $30, it's still profitable to produce oil in Venezuela with the right types of contract. | ||
| Venezuela has higher costs than the Middle East, which, you know, the fields in the Middle East have the lowest cost on earth, but the costs are on average lower than the U.S. and particularly much lower than Canada, which is the competitor of Venezuela in the heavy oil market. | ||
|
A New Interview with John Ferling
00:03:42
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| Okay, Mr. Minaldi, thank you so much for your time this morning. | ||
| We appreciate it. | ||
| Thank you for inviting me. | ||
| Later on this morning on the Washington Journal, we'll talk with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center Director and former FDA Advisory Committee member Dr. Paul Offutt as he discusses the CDC's overhaul of the childhood immunization, which lowers the number of universally recommended vaccines. | ||
| But next, after the break, it's open forum. | ||
| You can start calling in now. | ||
| Here are your lines. | ||
| Democrats, your number is 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independence, your line is 202-748-8002. | ||
|
unidentified
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We'll be right back. | |
| On this episode of Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb. | ||
| After 15 books on revolutionary America, John Ferling still has more to say about the early period in the life of the United States. | ||
| Ferling is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of West Georgia. | ||
| In the preface of his current book, Shots Heard Round the World, Professor Ferling opens with this, quote, Now that America will be commemorating the 250th anniversary of its War of Independence, what pops into your mind as you hear or witness references to that conflict? | ||
| Professor Ferling gives his answer in a 500-page book focusing on America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War era. | ||
|
unidentified
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A new interview with author John Ferling about his book, Shots Heard Round the World, America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War. | |
| Book Notes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb, is available wherever you get your podcasts and on the C-SPAN Now app. | ||
| Sunday on C-SPAN's Q&A. | ||
| In his book, White House Memories, 1970 to 2007, Gary Walters, chief usher from 1986 to 2007, shares stories from his time in the executive residence, serving seven different U.S. presidents and their families. | ||
| He discusses the role that he played, especially in managing the day-to-day operations, presidential transitions, and major events at the White House. | ||
| I received a call directly from Mrs. Ford and she said, Gary, would you go up and make sure that Jack is up? | ||
| I know he had calls put to him earlier. | ||
| And so I did that twice. | ||
| And both times I was told, yeah, I'm getting ready. | ||
| I'll be ready by the time I'm supposed to be ready. | ||
| That's kind of a tricky role, isn't it? | ||
| Waking up the president's son? | ||
| No, not when the president and the first lady said, get him off. | ||
| That was an easy decision for me. | ||
| Gary Walters with his book, White House Memories, 1970 to 2007. | ||
| Sunday night. | ||
| You can listen to Q ⁇ A and all of our podcasts on our free C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts. | ||
|
17 Republicans Cross The Aisle
00:02:20
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unidentified
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Washington Journal continues. | |
| Welcome back. | ||
| We're now in open forum where you can talk about any public policy or politics issue on your mind this morning. | ||
| We start with some domestic news. | ||
| Article from The Hill, the headline is, House passes three-year extension of Obamacare subsidies. | ||
| If you go a little bit further in the story, it says the House passed legislation Thursday to revive and extend expired Obamacare tax credits in a bipartisan vote that is boosting hopes of centrist Republicans for a bipartisan deal to revive the tax credits. | ||
| The tally 230 to 196 highlighted the tenuous grip Speaker Mike Johnson has over his Rest of GOP conference. | ||
| 17 Centrus Republicans crossed the aisle to join every to join every voting Democrat in support of the measure. | ||
| The measure, which would provide a three-year extension to the Enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that originally passed in response to COVID-19 that have now lapsed, now head to the Senate, which defeated the same proposal last month in a largely partisan vote. | ||
| Senate Majority Leader John Thune has suggested he'll ignore the House bill altogether. | ||
| But take a listen to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries talk about what he believes is his party's achievement after that vote. | ||
| The Senate said it was impossible to do. | ||
| But where I'm from, difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week. | ||
| And in this first full week of the new year, House Democrats, every single one of us, joined by 17 Republicans, have partnered in a bipartisan way to protect the health care of the American people. | ||
| House Democrats said from the very beginning that we would pour every ounce of heart, soul, spirit, and strength that we had to stand up for the health care of the American people and to address the affordability crisis that exists in the United States of America. | ||
|
Force and Intimidation Play
00:01:44
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| I'm thankful for the resolve of the House Democratic Caucus and our partnership with Senate Democrats, who made clear for months, beginning in September, that our commitment was to fix our broken health care system and address the Republican health care crisis, beginning with the extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits. | ||
| That was House Democratic Leader Jakeem Jeffries talking about his party's ability to pass an Obamacare subsidies extension bill this week. | ||
| Carl from Naples, Florida, an independent, you're next. | ||
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unidentified
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Hi, good morning. | |
| Love the show. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I just wanted to comment. | ||
| Any country ruling by force and intimidation is not a long-term solution. | ||
|
unidentified
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This play in Venezuela is not about oil for lowering gas prices for a common citizen. | |
| It is about the need for heavy crude to run the military, especially the Navy and the Air Force. | ||
| They rely exclusively on fuel built with heavy crude. | ||
| And they want to expand this. | ||
| This is their play in the Western Hemisphere. | ||
| Rule by force and intimidation. | ||
| In order for them to do this, they have to have access to the heavy crude. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||