Soros, the Podesta Brothers, BP, Petrobras, NBC, and GE

George Soros provided the money and the impetus to set up John Podesta as President of the Center for American Progress or CAP.  John Podesta used to be Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1998 to 2001.  He is now a Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center.  He also was co-head of the Obama transition team and helped to select many of the top officials in the Obama administration.  Years ago he set up a lobbying company with his brother Tony.  Tony and their lobbying company The Podesta Group work for BP and for NBC, which is owned by GE.

George Soros funded MoveOn.Org heavily to help elect Obama.  BP and its employees have contributed over $3.5 million to candidates for federal office over the last 20 years.  It gave Obama the largest single chunk of that money during his brief four years in the Senate and during his presidential campaign.  BP also spent $15.9 million just last year on lobbying.  Much of that lobbying money was handled by Tony Podesta.  BP is also tireless in advertising how green it is.  Another company tireless in advertising how green it is, is GE.  Its organ NBC is equally tireless in promoting the catastrophic man-made global warming alarmism and whatever the latest environmental disaster is supposed to be.  GE is the biggest beneficiary of the SmartGrid idea of the power grid, which was heavily funded with stimulus money.  BP was perhaps the beneficiary of an especially light-handed regulation by the federal government, which appears to have allowed it to take many shortcuts.

Soros is heavily invested in Petrobras of Brazil and Hess Oil of the U.S.  Back in August of 2009, Soros turned his common stock in Petrobras into preferred stock, which had a lower price and offered 10% more in dividends, just a couple of days before Obama pledged $2 billion of loan money to PetroBras, the national oil company of Brazil, which produces a healthy profit most years.  This Obama pledge boosted the value of Soros' stock.  Both Petrobras and Hess Oil are heavily involved in deep water drilling along with BP.  While the Obama administration early-on put restrictions on shallow water Gulf of Mexico oil drilling, it allowed the deep water drilling being done by the big players such as Hess and BP to proceed.  Hess is expected to be dependent upon deep water drilling in the Gulf for 22% of its new oil supplies, while BP is expected to depend on it for 21% of its new oil.  Soros is also heavily invested in Canadian oil, which is not affected by the general cut-backs on oil drilling leases made by Obama. 

The most recent halt to all deepwater oil drilling would have hurt Hess Oil, but this may explain why Obama was trying to get BP to pick up all the expenses of the other companies engaged in drilling who were affected by the moratorium on drilling.  Soros had also reduced his Hess holdings in the First Quarter by 16.1%, while he increased his Petrobras holdings by 17.7%.  This was the right thing to do given the then upcoming deep water drilling moratorium in the Gulf.  Drilling platforms are now moving out of the Gulf and many are going to Brazil to drill for Petrobras.  It is reasonable to believe that Soros had plenty of warning about the upcoming moratorium given his many deep-throated allies in the Obama administration.  Soros increased his holdings in Suncor Energy, the Canadian oil sands extractor and wind power plant company, by 22.4% in the First Quarter.  Suncor Energy likes to tout its interests in sustainable energy.  The federal government prevents any American competitors with its many oil sands development restrictions, heightened by its ownership of many of the best deposits.

Given the low ethical standards of this Obama administration, we had best keep a sharp eye on George Soros, BP, Hess Oil, GE, NBC, Petrobras, and all of the subsidized and mandate-benefiting "sustainable" and "alternative" energy companies.  They have all been pitiless in taking advantage of the American People.   Fortunately, Glenn Beck is also trying to focus attention on these nefarious actors.