[coconutmama]

Originally Posted by mickey100

Russia invaded Ukraine because the two have at odds since Ukraine declared itself independent in 1991. Since then, Putin has denied that Ukraine is even a country. He considers it Russian, part of the Slavic brotherhood, and is threatened that Ukraine has aligned itself with the West in recent years, particularly with NATO. And Ukraine has supplied much of Russia's coal, steel, etc, over time. Russian experts say Putin wants to see himself as a great Russian leader restoring Russian lands. He took a break when the previous administration was in power, due to our president's favoritism towards Russian, and also the Covid pandemic played a part, since Putin was much more isolated. But again according to experts, He thought western leadership wasn't capable, and that there would be no opposition to his aggression. Of course, that assumption turned out to be wrong.

A look at actual FACTS regarding approvals for permits to drill on federal land, show that the present administration has approved more permits at this point in time, than the previous administration. In fact environmental advocates want that statistic to go down, but the government is holding fast.

There has been a decrease in leases to the oil companies, which the government counters by saying that companies could increase production using the many thousands of permits already available to them which have remained unused. The federal government will continue leasing land to oil drillers as long as there is demand, but look around. With the proliferation of electric and hybrid vehicles, solar power, etc., surely the demand is shifting away from fossil fuels.

And the oil companies continue to make record profits while they whine about the drop in leases. Cry me a river.

Excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to write it