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Hofmeister interviewed on NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’

John Hofmeister, a Fuel Freedom board advisor and the former president of Shell Oil Co., appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Nov. 23 to discuss the falling price of oil.

Watch a clip here:

Watch the entire “MTP” program here (Hofmeister comes on about the 35:20 mark), and read the transcript here.

Hofmeister, appearing along with author Daniel Yergin, was asked by host Chuck Todd whether lower-priced oil amounted to an extra sanction against Russia and Iran, which already are burdened by sanctions — Russia for its actions in Ukraine and Iran for its pursuit of a nuclear program.

Hofmeister replied:

It is. It’s an extra sanction because it reduces their economic clout. Well, we’ve seen what happened to the Russian ruble. Iran is not able to subsidize many of its programs.

CHUCK TODD:

They need to have oil to be at $100 or more a barrel for them to balance their budget.

JOHN HOFMEISTER:

Yeah, the estimates are Russia needs well over $100, Iran even more. And the consequence of that is the people of Russia, the people of Iran will suffer as a consequence of the low oil price. That’s why the panicked feeling within the OPEC meeting coming up on Thursday.

As we know, at that meeting, OPEC decided not to cut production quotas, effectively ensuring that oil prices would not stabilize in the near future.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, now believes that oil will settle at about $60, down from about $110 over the summer.

Hofmeister said that, despite the worldwide surplus of oil, the U.S. should keep pumping, in anticipation of demand coming back:

… the reality is, we will be short of oil in the world over the next several years as global growth exceeds oil production. So we need all the production we can have. We need all the infrastructure we can build to make sure the U.S. is taken care of.

Hofmeister, author of the book Why We Hate the Oil Companies, has much more to say about oil in the Fuel Freedom-produced documentary PUMP. The film is now available for pre-order on iTunes. Visit PumpTheMovie.com to watch a trailer and learn more.

Former Shell Exec: American Energy Could Save the Economy

Town Hall

From 2005 to 2008, John Hofmeister ran the U.S. operations for Royal Dutch Shell. Then he turned 60. The Dutch have a cultural thing about 60. John said it roots back to post-WWII, when too many “older” folk were clinging to their jobs, so the unemployment rate among the youth was unacceptably high. So, many companies mandate retirement at 60. Fortunately, John didn’t drift off-stage. In fact, he’s more visible and viable now than ever. Frequently on CNBC, CNN, Fox and many others, he stopped by our Dallas studios to join Chris Faulkner of Breitling Energy and me for Powering America this week. (It’s the October 6 broadcast here).

 

Image courtesy of TownHall.com

Q&A: He ran Shell Oil Co. – and he thinks we use too much crude

Houston Chronicle

The film’s premise is that America is addicted to oil, and that the addiction is fueled by corporations and policymakers with a vested interest in ensuring that gasoline remains the country’s transportation fuel of choice – even though there are viable alternatives, to blend with gasoline or substitute for it. They include ethanol – pure alcohol usually made from corn or sugarcane but also from non-food organic mate- rial; methanol, a fuel and chemical building block derived from natural gas and some renewable sources; compressed natural gas; and liquefied natural gas.

 

Hannity on PUMP: A story ‘America needs to know’

Sean Hannity is a big fan of the message contained within the documentary film PUMP, because it’s one he’s been promoting himself for years.

The conservative radio and Fox News host welcomed Fuel Freedom chairman and co-founder Yossie Hollander and board adviser John Hofmeister on “The Sean Hannity Show” on radio Thursday.

Hannity primed the pump for PUMP’s theatrical release Friday with this introduction:

“How many times have I said on this program that oil, energy, is the answer to all of our problems? I’ve said it so often. Well, now there is an eye-opening documentary that I want you to go see. … I have no [rooting] interest in this movie, except that it tells the story that I have been trying to tell you now for such a long period of time about America and how we can become energy independent, about how there’s a lot going on in the oil industry, where we all pay more. How we are all dependent on oil from countries, many of whom just kind of hate our guts. And it’s been put together in a fabulous documentary that is now gonna be released in movie theaters around the country [Friday].

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