You Can't Have Your Oil and Sell it Too

In his Forbes article, Dinesh D'Souza criticizes Obama for using American money to help Brazil keep their offshore oil for themselves. But is that really the case?

Thanks to a recent endorsement by Newt Gingrich, a lot of attention has come to this article by former campus radical Dinesh D'Souza, who writes:

With Obama's backing, the U.S. Export-Import Bank offered $2 billion in loans and guarantees to Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras to finance exploration in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro--not so the oil ends up in the U.S. He is funding Brazilian exploration so that the oil can stay in Brazil.

But . . . if oil is drilled off the coast of Brazil, it will be sent into the atmosphere. That's the point, right? You drill the oil so you can sell it to people who will burn it. The way for the oil to stay in Brazil is for them not to drill it! As the philosopher said: You can't sell your oil and keep it too.