Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Hochstein
Amos J. Hochstein (born January 4, 1973) is a U.S. businessman, former diplomat, lobbyist, and national security and energy expert. He has worked in the U.S. Congress, has testified before congressional panels and has served under the Barack Obama administration under Secretaries of State Clinton and Kerry. He was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in 2011 and as Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs. In 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Hochstein to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources.
While at the State Department, Hochstein worked as a close advisor to Vice-President Joe Biden. He served in the administration from 2011 to 2017.
In March 2017, he joined Tellurian, a private Houston-based LNG company, where he serves as Senior Vice President Marketing. He serves on the supervisory board of Naftogaz as well as the Board's of the Atlantic Council and U.S.-India Business Council.
CAREER
Advising Congress
Hochstein began his career in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill where he first served on the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs staff. In subsequent years he served in a variety of senior level positions, including the House International Relations Committee, where he served as Senior Policy Advisor. In 1997 he later was sent to North Korea to report on the country's economic and military status as well as the progress and opportunities for humanitarian relief efforts.
Later, Hochstein served as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hochstein first served as the principal Democratic staff person on the Economic Policy, Trade & Environment Subcommittee where he oversaw work authorizing Ex-Im Bank, OPIC and USTDA, as well as drafting legislation on export controls and trade-related multilateral organizations and regimes.
Hochstein also worked as a Senior Policy Advisor to then-Governor Mark Warner, and later as Policy Director for Senator Chris Dodd. He joined Dodd's team in the beginning of 2007 and was the Policy Director during his 2008 Presidential campaign.
Hochstein was also an aide to Representative Sam Gejdenson. During his time on Capitol Hill, Hochstein travelled to Iraq and was involved in U.S. back-channel diplomatic discussions to potentially lift U.S. economic sanctions in exchange for the potential resettlement of several thousand Palestinian refugees in Central Iraq. Hochstein argued that the economic sanctions had to be maintained while conceding that it was necessary to "humanise" those sanctions.
Cassidy & Associates
Hochstein later moved to the private sector as Executive Vice President of International Operations at Cassidy & Associates. Throughout his career, he was a counselor and lobbyist for both domestic and international oil and gas companies, as well as companies focusing on renewable energy. In this capacity, he assisted corporations in assessing potential new markets and the development of alternative sources of power.
While working at Cassidy & Associates, Hochstein also worked on the account of the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Africa's longest serving dictator, to improve the relationship with the United States. In his book "Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power", two times Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll recounts, that while Hochstein initially was uncomfortable with the Equatorial Guinea account, he assisted in the development of a "road map" of political changes together with the U.S. National Security Council, that Equatorial Guinea would have to implement in order to display their political sincerity to change and to improve relations with the United States. The outlines involved prisoner releases, substantial public investments in health care and education and Hochstein coordinated the communication of these points with and between Equatorial Guinea's leadership and the State Department. Hochstein and others, among them Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz, said they were convinced by Obiang's will to change and adapt. Equatorial Guinea under the Obiang regime remains by many accounts one of the world's least free countries. Hochstein defended the Obiang regime in an interview with the Washington Post. He stated that the development and support of the democratic process in countries like Equatorial Guinea must be supported and that Western states cannot expect changes of long-standing political realities overnight. Eventually Hochstein resigned from the lobbying account but continued to work for Cassidy until 2006.
Energy diplomat for the Obama Administration
Hochstein began working at the U.S. Department of State in 2011, joining the newly formed Bureau of Energy Resources. Serving as deputy to Special Envoy Carlos Pascual, Hochstein worked to help Ukraine find new supplies of natural gas in the wake of the 2014 Russian invasion.
He oversaw the Office of Middle East, Asia and Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Africa. Hochstein led the energy related diplomacy efforts.
Special Envoy and Coordinator of International Energy Affairs
On August 1, 2014, Hochstein succeeded Carlos Pascual as acting Special Envoy and Coordinator of International Energy Affairs, and was permanently appointed to the position later in the year by Secretary Kerry. As the Special Envoy, Hochstein oversaw the Bureau of Energy Resources and advised Secretary of State John Kerry on global energy security and diplomacy, as well as integration of renewable and clean energy and related security matters. He also worked closely with officials at the White House's National Security Council and other government agencies.
In his capacity as the U.S.'s Chief Energy Diplomat, Hochstein had an important role in shaping foreign energy and security policy and worked closely with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, accompanying him on international travel and advancing energy as a key US foreign policy tool. Hochstein and Biden worked together on the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative, Central America Energy Security Task Force, Cyprus and East Mediterranean, as well as securing Ukraine and Europe from Russian energy dominance.
Hochstein encouraged European countries to find new oil, gas, coal, and nuclear sources, to alleviate their dependence on Russian energy. In response to President Vladimir Putin's plans for new gas pipelines to bypass an existing transit coordinator through Ukraine towards Greece and Italy, Hochstein described the plans as "political projects that have questionable economic value" to the European energy market. He has also stated that the U.S.'s position isn't to exclude Russia from the European market entirely, but rather that Russia should be an equal player, remarking that "European countries should be able to choose their supplier and force their suppliers to compete for their business. That is what is good for energy security of Europe, economic security and ultimately for the national security of those countries involved."
Hochstein has also been involved in the U.S. front against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, specifically cutting their oil revenues by disrupting their production lines. Hochstein oversaw the U.S. efforts to cripple Islamic State's energy business by weakening oil trade between ISIS, the Syrian government and other parties. His team coordinated with the U.S. Department of Defense to determine targets. Airstrikes subsequently blew up over 1,000 tanker trucks and other key targets. In a testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Hochstein described the military actions as "not only more bombings, but a different kind of bombing."
Hochstein’s energy diplomacy efforts in the Middle East have been critical. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited Hochstein’s work as helping to provide an incentive for the renewed relationship between Israel and Turkey. This followed his work to revive efforts to settle maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel. At the conclusion of his visit, Hochstein made statements stressing his visit was to discuss delayed gas exploration in Lebanon. The previous year, 2014, Hochstein helped “pave the way” for the $500 million natural gas agreement between Israel and Jordan visiting Jordan 14 times and was, alongside Israel’s former President Shimon Peres, a "key broker" for the gas export deal. This agreement concluded an effort that Secretary of State Clinton began in 2011.
In response to Russian officials claiming that the Turkish government was illegally buying oil from the Islamic State, Hochstein dismissed these claims, saying that "I do not believe there is significant smuggling between ISIL-controlled areas and Turkey of oil of any significant volume."
Hochstein has also worked on multilateral energy affairs, meeting with Urban Rusnák, Secretary-General of the Energy Charter Conference, to discuss progress on the Energy Charter Process, discussing the advance of clean energy investments and energy security with government officials in India and meeting several other state leaders and government officials to coordinate energy and security matters with states like Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia and other states in the Middle East.
Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Ressources
On October 8, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Hochstein to be the Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, the official chief position for the bureau. Hochstein continued his efforts in all previously engaged fields of national and international energy and security matters, including Iran sanctions, energy opportunities in Latin America, the US-India energy cooperation, the US-China energy cooperation, the administration’s strategy on Russia, and the fight against ISIS.
He also was involved in discussing and mapping out details of the Southern Gas Corridor project generally and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline with Greece specifically.
He authored the White House Caribbean Energy Security Initiative and chaired President Obama's U.S.-Caribbean and U.S.-Central America Energy Security Task Force. He also continued to lead U.S. efforts to promote global fuel switching to natural gas and develop stronger natural gas markets in Asia and South Asia. He headed the State Department's Unconventional Gas Technical Engagement Program, formerly known as Global Shale Gas Initiative.
He was succeeded by Frank R. Fannon, now Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources.
Since leaving the White House, Hochstein appeared on a Trump White House panel promoting the use of fossil fuels at the 2016 Bonn Climate Change Conference.
TELLURIAN
In 2017 Hochstein joined Tellurian, a private LNG-gas company and today serves as SVP of Marketing.
POSITIONS
Hochstein sees renewable energies as very important and being at the center of both the future's energy market and US energy policy. He is of the opinion, that the realistic transition into a fully renewable resourced energy mix, will take some time and that the use of cleaner resources (e.g. LNG to replace heavy crude oils) for this transition period is crucial to sustain economic developments and growth. Hochstein said: "Here in Washington, I think we are the last city on the planet…where we still talk about fossil fuel versus renewables as some kind of zero-sum game […] It is not one or the other. It is going to have to be both because we are going to need the baseload and we are going to need the fuels that will transition us to the future."
At the 2015 Renewable Energy Transition event hosted by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center, Hochstein stated that "unlike oil and gas, the technological advances we’re seeing in renewables are making them cheaper and better." He further said: "U.S. energy security, energy sustainability and climate objectives are mutually reinforcing. As such, we are working to promote energy efficiency, conservation and transformation of energy systems. We are encouraging market reforms, such as the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, that can address overall energy demand."
Hochstein has been interviewed by national and international media, commenting on national and international energy policy, energy security, and foreign policy.
MEMBERSHIPS
Hochstein is a member of the supervisory board at Naftogaz and servers on the board of the Atlantic Council and the U.S.-Indian Business Council.
PERSONAL LIFE
Hochstein is married to Julie Rae Ringel. They have four children and live in Washington D.C. His wife is an executive coach and faculty member for the Georgetown University’s Certificate in Leadership Coaching program. She is the founding director of the "Art of Facilitation" program at Georgetown University's Institute for Transformational Leadership and the founding president of The Ringel Group.
Source: https://peoplepill.com/people/amos-hochstein
Ex-envoy’s name mentioned as possible candidate, along with energy guru Amos Hochstein and former Rep. Robert Wexler, as David Friedman prepares for post-ambassadorial life [...]
Another name being mentioned is Amos Hochstein, a former diplomat who headed the US State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources from 2015 to 2017, leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts related to energy matters.
Hochstein, who was born and raised in Israel with American parents, earlier served as special envoy for international energy for the Obama administration, where he helped Ukraine and other European allies find non-Russian supplies of natural gas. He was also essential in securing an agreement for Israel to supply natural gas to Jordan in 2014.
The discovery of large gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean over the last decade has played an increasingly large role in regional diplomacy.
While at the State Department, Hochstein led a failed effort to broker discussion between Israel and Lebanon over their maritime border and rights to Mediterranean gas fields. The talks only began last year, brokered by Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker.
Hochstein left State in 2017 and advises private enterprises while remaining a frequent commentator on energy diplomacy in the media.
While out of government and not directly involved with the Biden campaign or transition, both Hochstein and Shapiro have cheered on the incoming president and his administration from the sidelines. [...]
Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/four-years-after-leaving-post-will-dan-shapiro-return-as-old-new-us-ambassador/
US State Department Bureau of Energy Resources: Amos J. Hochstein
[Term of Appointment: 01/08/2014 to 2017 and 10/08/2021 to now]
Amos J Hochstein currently serves as the Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs and leads the Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) at the U.S. Department of State. The Special Envoy oversees global U.S. energy foreign policy engagement and advises the Secretary on global energy security and diplomacy. He also promotes U.S. interests to ensure energy resources are used to enhance political stability, national security and prosperity around the world. Special Envoy Hochstein leads the U.S. Government’s efforts to combat the use of energy resources for political leverage while promoting a vision of energy cooperation and collaboration. He leads the engagement to strengthen Europe’s energy security; leads the White House announced Caribbean Energy Security Initiative; chairs the President’s U.S. – Caribbean and U.S. – Central American Energy Security Task Force; and plays a key diplomatic role in the continued development of the important Southern Gas Corridor. Special Envoy Hochstein implemented U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil and energy resources which later extended to overseeing U.S. government energy related sanctions elsewhere around the world. Working closely with the Department of Defense and our Counter-ISIL Coalition partners, Mr. Hochstein and the Energy Resources Bureau lead the U.S. Government’s efforts to diminish Daesh’s and other terrorist groups’ ability to profit from its energy assets.
He began his career in Washington, D.C. where he served in a variety of senior level positions, ultimately serving as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Hochstein also served as Policy Director to Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) and as a Senior Policy Advisor to Senator (then Governor) Mark Warner (D-VA). Additionally, Mr. Hochstein worked as an advisor and Executive Vice President of International Operations at Cassidy & Associates. Throughout his career, he has been a counselor for both domestic and international oil and gas companies, as well as companies focusing on renewable energy assisting corporations in assessing potential new markets, the development of alternative sources of power, and best strategies to bring them to market.
Source: https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/230679.htm
U.S. appoints top diplomat for energy issues
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Wednesday appointed Amos Hochstein as the top diplomat for energy affairs as the Obama administration tests using the power of the domestic energy boom to shape policy with foreign energy producers and consumers.
Hochstein has been acting as special envoy for international energy at the State Department’s energy bureau since Aug. 1. He succeeds Carlos Pascual, a former ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine, who stepped down over the summer.
As deputy to Pascual, Hochstein worked to help Ukraine, and other European countries, find new supplies of natural gas after Russia invaded it this year. He has also worked on energy issues related to sanctions on Iran and Russia, two of the world’s largest oil producers.
Hochstein has worked closely with officials at the White House’s National Security Council and government agencies.
An open question for the Obama administration is whether it will chip away at the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports, a restriction that energy companies and some lawmakers say will eventually slow down the U.S. oil boom that has helped keep global oil prices from spiking in recent years.
In 2011, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the State Department’s bureau of energy resources, where Hochstein works, just as Washington was forming tougher sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
Pascual, now a fellow on energy issues at Columbia University, was never confirmed by Congress for the job as assistant secretary for the bureau, amid opposition by some Republican senators.
Hochstein, who early in his career worked in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate, frequently testifies before congressional panels.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-energy-diplomat-idUSKCN0JH2CC20141203
US Official Rejects Russian Assertion of IS Oil Sales to Turkey
December 04, 2015
Pamela Dockins
A video screen grab from the Russian Defense Ministry’s YouTube channel shows an image of the ministry’s presentation of what it says is Turkey’s involvement in trading Islamic State oil.
STATE DEPARTMENT —
A senior State Department official on Friday cast doubt on a Russian assertion that Turkish government officials illegally buy large amounts of oil from Islamic State militants in Syria.
“I do not believe there is significant smuggling between ISIL-controlled areas and Turkey of oil of any significant volume,” said Amos Hochstein, the special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.
His comments came after Russian officials presented what they said was satellite imagery from the past few months showing thousands of trucks carrying oil from Islamic State-controlled areas of Syria to Turkey.
A Russian Defense Ministry official said Wednesday that there were three main routes for transporting Islamic State oil into Turkey and displayed stills and video footage of what he said were trucks shipping IS oil on these routes. One piece of footage showed a long line of trucks at what appeared to be a crossing point on the Syrian-Turkish border.
In a Friday briefing, a senior State Department official said U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on Islamic State-controlled oil sites in Syria had disrupted the militant group’s oil business.
“It is not an economically viable operation” for smugglers to try to transport oil from Islamic State sites in Syria to Turkey, when there is a market for oil inside Syria, the official said.
The State Department official also said the Islamic State’s Syria market included selling oil to President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
“We have seen significant swings in how much they [the Syrian government] are buying at any given point,” said the official, who added that buying “spiked” when there was an oil “crunch” in government-controlled areas.
The Islamic State controls more than 10 oil fields in the territory it holds.
A State Department official said that for Islamic State, control over the oil fields is not only about revenue but also about projecting a “false” image that it is a state.
Russia stepped up its rhetoric against Turkey last week after Turkey downed a Russian military jet that it said had illegally entered Turkish airspace. Russia said its jet was flying inside Syria.
Source: https://www.voanews.com/a/united-states-official-rejects-russian-assertion-islamic-state-oil-sales-turkey/3088350.html
Hochstein Lobbied for Qaddafi Dictatorship
The lobbying forms for Marathon Oil disclose that Hochstein was lobbying for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008. More specifically, for “provisions regarding terrorism exception to immunity” found within the omnibus bill.
In practice, this meant lobbying on behalf of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, the former and now deceased Libyan dictator.
The provision would “get Libya exempted from a law signed the previous month by President George W. Bush letting American terrorism victims seize assets of countries found liable,” explained Bloomberg. “The dictatorship was an explicit target of the legislation. Qaddafi had taken responsibility for the 1988 crash of a Pan Am flight in Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, including 189 Americans.”
Hochstein’s lobbying paid off, as the exemption — sponsored by then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and now Vice President — passed unanimously and without debate on the same day as the Libyan Claims Resolution Act in the Senate and House. Within days, President George W. Bush signed the bill into law.
“For the companies operating in Libya at the time…[including Marathon Oil]…the exemption was a relief,” wrote Bloomberg. “It meant a continuing opportunity to tap Libya’s coveted light, easily refined crude and to solidify ties with a country that has the largest proven reserves in Africa.”
A State Department diplomatic cable made public via Wikileaks through whistleblower Chelsea Manning shows Qaddafi had “threatened to dramatically reduce Libya’s oil production and/or expel out U.S. oil companies” if the U.S. government did not exempt Libya from the National Defense Authorization Act’s terrorism provision.
At a meeting with ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva, Qadaffi told him “Libya would rather ‘keep its oil in the ground’ and wait for a more favorable overseas investment climate than continue high levels of production in an environment in which sizable portions of its oil-related assets could be seized,” the State Department diplomatic cable reveals.
David Goldwyn, one of Hochstein’s predecessors in his new position at the State Department, also formerly lobbied on behalf of the Qadaffi dictatorship. [...]
Source: https://www.desmog.com/2014/12/08/new-obama-state-department-top-energy-diplomat-formerly-marathon-oil-lobbyist/
Kerry Officially Appoints Amos Hochstein as Energy Envoy. Oh, Hey, What’s That?
Domani Spero
It’s official. Last week, Secretary Kerry appointed Amos Hochstein as Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs. Here is his state.gov bio:
Amos J Hochstein serves as the Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs leading the Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) at the U.S. Department of State. He oversees U.S. foreign policy engagement in the critical intersection of energy and national security. In this role, he advises the Secretary on global energy security and diplomacy, as well as promotes U.S. interests to ensure energy resources are used to increase economic opportunity, stability and prosperity around the world. Special Envoy Hochstein also advises the Secretary on U.S. strategy to advance global integration of renewable and clean energy sources. Prior to this role, Mr. Hochstein served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Diplomacy and in that capacity oversaw the Office of Middle East and Asia and the Office of Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Africa where he lead the bureau’s energy diplomacy efforts.
Prior to joining the State Department, Mr. Hochstein spent more than 15 years advising U.S. elected officials, candidates for public office and thought leaders on domestic and global energy policy initiatives. He began his career in Washington, DC, on Capitol Hill where he served in a variety of senior level positions, ultimately serving as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mr. Hochstein first served as the principal Democratic staff person on the Economic Policy, Trade and Environment Subcommittee where he oversaw work authorizing Ex-Im Bank, OPIC and USTDA, as well as drafting legislation on export controls and trade-related multilateral organizations and regimes.
Mr. Hochstein served as Policy Director to Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). Prior to his work with Sen. Dodd, he worked as a Senior Policy Advisor to Senator (then Governor) Mark Warner (D-VA).
Harnessing his experience in the policy, campaign and public sector, Mr. Hochstein moved to the private sector as Executive Vice President of International Operations at Cassidy & Associates. Throughout his career, he has been a counselor for both domestic and international oil and gas companies, as well as companies focusing on renewable energy. In this capacity, he assisted corporations in assessing potential new markets and the development of alternative sources of power and best strategies to bring them to market.
You may now follow (or not) Mr. Hochstein on Twitter at @amoshochstein but he says “tweets are my own.” Now, where’s the fun in that?
* * *
Mr. Hochstein succeeds Ambassador Carlos Pascual who was appointed Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs after a stint as ambassador to Mexico. The Bureau of Energy Affairs was subsequently created in November 2011. We have posted here about Ambassador Pascual when he became the first public casualty of WikiLeaks in March 2011. Two days after that, his resignation was announced. On May 2011, Ambassador Pascual was appointed as Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs. He was nominated the first Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Energy Affairs in February 2012. The Senate did not act on the nomination and this past summer, he resigned from his State Department post to join Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
According to the state.gov, the Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) is “working to ensure that all our diplomatic relationships advance our interests in having access to secure, reliable, and ever-cleaner sources of energy.” It’s three core objectives includes energy diplomacy, energy transformation, and energy transparency and access.
Mr. Amos has been appointed to a special envoy position which requires no confirmation. He heads State’s ENR office supported by Amb. Mary Warlick as his Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Robin Dunnigan as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Diplomacy and Robert F. Ichord, Jr., Ph.D. as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Transformation.
Oh, hey, what’s that?
Wait — there’s more? Via Newsweek back in 2010, with special mention for the new special envoy, Mr. Hochstein who then oversaw the Equatorial Guinea account:
The rise in foreign lobbying may have also compromised the policymaking of current and future U.S. government officials. With little oversight, lobbyists can represent the most repressive regimes and then turn around and work in government. According to John Newhouse, author of a forthcoming book on the influence of foreign lobbies on American policies, one of John McCain’s senior foreign-policy advisers during his 2008 campaign, Randy Scheunemann, simultaneously worked for McCain and as a paid adviser to the government of Georgia, which had been accused of human-rights violations. Despite McCain’s reputation as a leading champion of human rights, Scheunemann largely escaped questions about whether his lobbying might have affected his foreign-policy advice to the powerful senator. Similarly, while at Cassidy & Associates, lobbyist Amos Hochstein oversaw the Equatorial Guinea account, which required him to argue the merits of one of the most repressive regimes on earth. Still, after leaving Cassidy, Hochstein landed a prominent job on the (ill-fated) 2008 presidential campaign of Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, a politician also known for his longstanding human-rights advocacy. Now Hochstein says he helped “move the ball forward on human rights” in the country.
Lobbying can turn down the pressure on authoritarian regimes. After years of intense lobbying, Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang managed to transform his image in Washington from a venal autocrat into a solid American ally and buddy of U.S. business. In 2006 he strode out of a meeting at Foggy Bottom with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who declared him “a good friend.”
Look, one of our readers also sent us a link to Sunlight Foundation’s Foreign Influence Explorer for Equatorial Guinea. If you have never seen it, click here for folks you may or may not know.
Oh, dear. May we please retract our congratulations now?
Source: https://diplopundit.net/2014/12/09/kerry-officially-appoints-amos-hochstein-as-energy-envoy-oh-hey-whats-that/
Revolver Spotlight: Amos Hochstein
Max Moran
10 April 2021
Politico reported on Wednesday that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is vetting Amos Hochstein for a role negotiating to kill an oil pipeline between Germany and Russia. This might sound like a positive development for Biden’s foreign policy on climate change — until you learn that Hochstein, until September 2020, was a marketing executive at the gasoline giant Tellurian.
If he gets the job, Hochstein will not be fighting to end the Nord Stream 2 pipeline out of any significant concern for fossil fuels’ devastating impact on our planet. His concern will be that Russia, instead of U.S. oil firms, would gain influence and profit in Germany.
Hochstein previously served in the Obama State Department, where his job was essentially to secure access to global oil fields on behalf of putatively American multinational Big Oil firms. He is a strong believer in petroleum as a tool for diplomacy, especially when that results in the United States gaining both fuel and foreign influence.
Here are a few of the most alarming aspects of Amos Hochstein’s history:
At a keynote address to oil and gas executives in 2017, Hochstein said the quiet part out loud about the industry-led myth of “bridge fuels.”
Hochstein delivered the keynote closing address at the GE Oil and Gas Annual Meeting in 2017, where he painted an exuberant picture about the future of fossil fuels: “I leave here after the last two days entirely optimistic. Because this sector, that has fueled so much job growth and economic prosperity in the United States and around the world is clearly focusing in the right direction, which is ‘how do we use technology, innovation, to be able to bring about that next future in the oil and gas sector?’”
Hochstein continued that he was optimistic about discussions of natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to a clean energy grid, but made clear that he anticipates this “bridge” to remain for the long term: “A bridge is not something where when you cross it you cut it off. A bridge remains. Natural gas will continue to be that backbone of a cleaner energy future. So these are the reasons that I leave optimistic.”
This winking statement acknowledged that building out and sustaining the infrastructure needed to make natural gas a “bridge fuel” all but ensures that it will be used for the long term, in order to make a necessary return on the upfront investment. Meanwhile, clean energy is now consistently cheaper than carbon-generating energy sources like natural gas.
In 2020, Hochstein dismissed climate change activists as being “emotional” and said the planet was “past the conversation of the last few years where transition was going to be immediate” and the priority would be keeping fuels in the ground.
Hochstein dismissed objections to allowing natural gas into the energy grid at a fossil fuel industry conference in 2020: “The conversation about the transition has to move from an emotional one and a goal-oriented one towards a fact-based, information-based, and technology-based one. Where are we actually going, and how will we achieve the goals? It’s going to take longer to achieve the transitions that we all hope for. I truly believe that natural gas is going to play a far greater role in the transition.”
Hochstein similarly disparaged the idea of keeping fossil fuels in the ground: “We are past the conversation of the last few years where transition was going to be immediate. ‘We’re just keeping it all in the ground and going to go to all renewables.’ That is not going to happen. We’re going to have the oil and gas industry here to stay for several decades, and the renewable industry is going to grow by leaps and bounds. That we all know. Exactly how that’s going to work we don’t.”
Hochstein expressed particular excitement at the Indian government of Narendra Modi clearing away barriers toward fossil fuel development and investment: “I believe that India and the government here has taken critically important steps to invest in infrastructure, change the regulatory environment, reduce the taxes, which will now allow for US gas to be extremely competitive in India. So I foresee a bright future for US-India, not political relationship, but energy-investment relationship. Where not only as consumer and buyer, but rather, as a holistic relationship between the two countries that will go into the future.”
Hochstein warned against the U.S. banning drilling on banning Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) exports.
At a 2019 panel at the Atlantic Council, which is funded heavily by the fossil fuel industry, Hochstein said: “If we would make any kind of executive order that would discuss these issues on federal lands, the impact on the actual fossil fuel industry would relatively be muted. If you look at where most of the drilling is happening, it will have some impact. It will have, I think, a greater impact on exports, on people willing to trust whether or not you’re starting to touch things like ‘Are you going to ban LNG exports? Are you going to reinstate the embargo on crude oil exports that was removed during the Obama administration?’ […] I think there’ll be a lot of Democrats who will have some issues with some of these ideas, and how they’re discussed and how we move forward on those will have a great impact.”
Hochstein claimed that some Republicans might be willing to vote for a carbon tax.
At the same 2019 Atlantic Council panel, Hochstein expressed a belief that Republicans might be willing to vote for a carbon tax. “There’s no question that it’s not the sin qua non, but I think there is openness in the political spectrum. And because Republicans have come a long way on the Hill to being willing to vote on a carbon tax, it could be something that grows, and the rate of the tax could also rise as time goes by, and it becomes an important piece of just changing the psyche in America for polluters to pay for the pollution they put out.”
During the Obama administration, Hochstein vocally supported continued U.S. involvement in the Middle East to secure oil and gas.
In 2016, Amos Hochstein was the State Department’s Special Envoy for International Energy Affairs. He was nominated to become Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources, but was never confirmed.
In a September 2016 subcommittee hearing on foreign affairs, Hochstein laid out his philosophy of achieving greater peace in the Middle East through interconnecting fossil fuel resources: “Let me be clear: energy will not solve political differences in the region. But it can, and in fact already has, provided incentives to accelerate political accommodation and encourage compromise. The future I see for the region includes new and old pipelines connecting Israel’s offshore resources to Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and the Palestinian Authority. It includes Cypriate gas exports to Turkey, and/or Egypt, allowing Egypt to satisfy its own power needs and export via existing but now idle LNG terminals. New resources will allow Turkey to diversify its heavy dependence on a small number of suppliers, and use its extensive pipeline network to reach Europe as well. The success of all these plans, however, hinges on cooperation. Countries will save billions if they share infrastructure and market access. If they don’t share these resources, most of the gas will have to stay in the ground.”
Hochstein asserted at the same hearing that it was crucial for US oil firms to have an easy regulatory environment and enforceable means of neutralizing legal threats from foreign governments: “One of the early lessons learned in the development of East Med resources is the critical importance of regulatory certainty, a business climate that is conducive to investment, contract sanctity, and close cooperation between the government and the private sector. The lack of regulatory clarity and instability cost Israel years in development of its largest offshore resource. But despite early challenges, I’m now optimistic and confident in the long-term stability of energy development in the region.”
Hochstein has constantly reasserted that the United States should never, in the foreseeable future, leave the Middle East oil and gas market: “This is a region that you don’t get to leave.”
In his 2016 written testimony before Congress, Hochstein wrote: “[I]t is striking to me how often I am asked whether increasing production levels in the United States means we are becoming ‘energy independent’ and therefore will disengage from the Middle East. Let me be clear: nothing could be further from the truth. Our relations and interests in the Middle East have always been – and will continue to be – strong, multifaceted, deep, complex, and strategic. We live in an international global economy with interdependent energy markets. And even if all products we consume would originate beneath our own soil and oceans, we would still not be ‘independent.’ A disruption anywhere in the world would have consequences everywhere, including here at home.” [emphasis his]
This statement actually contradicted the Obama administration’s official line on energy policy, which was that energy independence was both achievable and a primary goal of the oil and gas expansion during his presidency, especially through fracking.
In 2020, on the oil industry radio show Half-Time Talk, Hochstein repeated his assertions about the Middle East and the US fossil fuel industry. “The idea that the United States will leave the region is not realistic. This is a region that you don’t get to leave. We have bases throughout the region, and when you try to leave it, it soon flares up somewhere. […] And it comes to bite you if you try to leave hastily or not too strategically.”
Hochstein has a long history of supporting devastating sanctions regimes and wars, to the point where he was criticized by name in a memoir by a UN humanitarian coordinator.
In 2000, one year before 9/11 and three years before the start of the Iraq war, then-Congressman Sam Gejdenson issued a press release warning that “Saddam Hussein may have started to rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. He emphasized the critical importance of this issue to both the United States and the international community, but declared ‘Just because we don’t have good options doesn’t mean that we ought to stick to the policy as it is.’” The contact listed on the press release was his then-aide, Amos Hochstein.
In 2005, H.C. Von Sponeck released a memoir of his time as the United Nations’ Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq in the 1990’s, during a period when a devastating U.S.-led sanctions regime caused mass starvation and privation throughout the country. Von Sponeck writes: “I remember vividly the visit of a five-member US Congressional aides delegation. Four of them came with ambivalent positions on their government’s sanctions policy; the fifth, Amos Hochstein, representing Sam Gejdenson, a Conservative Democrat in the US Congress from Connecticut, did not hesitate to state at the first of a series of meetings we had in my office that he had come to Iraq to squarely defend the hard-line position of both the Congress and the White House.”
After their trip, while the four other aides were “seemingly depressed by what they had seen and heard,” Von Sponeck writes that “Amos Hochstein remained convinced that economic sanctions had to remain but, to my surprise, conceded that there was a need to ‘humanise’ these sanctions. While I did not think that this was likely to happen, I was encouraged by the impression that conditions in the country had made on him and the rest of the US delegation. What he did hide, as I subsequently found out, was that he had met ‘on the side’ with Under-Secretary Nizar Hamdoun of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry to discuss a ‘hot’ political issue: the possible resettlement of several thousand Palestinians in Central Iraq in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. I assume that this was an ‘assignment’ rather than merely raised out of his personal curiosity.”
In 2016, Hochstein testified that “Iraq has emerged from decades of mismanagement and sanctions to resume its role as a major oil supplier.” This referred to the same U.S. sanctions with devastating humanitarian impacts on which he’d previously refused to budge. Hochstein continued “The country is still developing, but we are intensely focused on helping Iraq build in improved reliability in its energy sector, and to sharing best practices related to oil and natural gas production, distribution, and export.”
Hochstein predicted that the Biden administration would want a good relationship with Saudi Arabia and predicted a second “pivot to Asia” reminiscent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Hochstein told the radio show Half-Time Talk in 2020 that “I believe the administration will come in wanting to have a good relationship with UAE, a good relationship with the Gulf, and to figure out how to have a relationship with Saudi Arabia. And I don’t know that anybody knows how that will work, because there are some things that will have to be worked out that a Democratic administration will face challenges from its own constituencies and its own feelings about how to build that relationship with Saudi Arabia. That’s the most difficult piece.”
Hochstein told the radio show Half-Time Talk in 2020 that “If you think of the Obama administration’s first term, when we discussed a lot the pivot to Asia, I think we’re going to be going back to that. I think there’s no doubt that there’s this sense that to deal with China is not just about confrontation. It’s about how do you disagree with China on some issues and agree with China on some issues in the way that Obama did, or tried to do, I think, with mixed results. But China joined the Paris Agreement, but we did not do as well on some other areas.”
The Biden administration is required by law to sanction entities involved in the Germany-Russia pipeline’s construction. Senator Ted Cruz has been holding up speedy confirmation of Biden’s State Department appointees as part of an effort to push action against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline (again, purely out of geopolitical concerns, not climate ones.)
Appointing Hochstein, however, could have massive long-term consequences for Biden’s climate foreign policy. He is a lifelong political operator who may not want to give up a State Department job if he secures one for a discrete task like these negotiations.
Already, Climate Envoy John Kerry, under whom Hochstein served in the Obama State Department, has undermined a climate push by Biden’s independent financial regulators by positioning Wall Street as the driver of a clean energy future. Granting Hochstein another spin through State would further cement it as a short-sighted weak link in Biden’s stated whole-of-government commitment to address this existential crisis.
Source: https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/revolver-spotlight-amos-hochstein/
