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US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security

theguardian.com

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Re: US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security

#11

Post by NickC25 »

ok_dad wrote: post #3

This isn’t news, big oil has been bankrolling lobbyists across the globe to maintain their position via fear mongering about “global security”. There were several wars fought over oil in the past three decades, in fact.

Exactly!

People want Green energy resources to be slashed? I'm all for it, once we spend roughly the same amount of time and money we've dedicated to developing oil.

Between wars to secure oil, excessive industry tax breaks, etc, I wouldn't doubt the cost to get oil to where it is today is in the tens (if not hundreds) of trillions of dollars.

Re: US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security

#13

Post by abdullahkhalids »

anovikov wrote: post #5

One thing is true: U.S. natural gas production was critical for EU survival after Russian gas cuts and is still critical for survival of EU support for Ukraine. If not the increase in U.S. supplies, EU won't hold out for long having to buy gas elsewhere as prices won't at all be affordable. I don't think it makes sense intentionally suppressing fossil fuels production. The way renewables are developing now, they'll s…

> Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $7 trillion in 2022 or 7.1 percent of GDP.... Differences between efficient prices and retail fuel prices are large and pervasive, for example, 80 percent of global coal consumption was priced at below half of its efficient level in 2022. [1]

Fossil fuels will die a lot quicker if we stop subsiding them to the tune of 7% of global GDP, i.e. 7% of all economic activity globally is redirected to make fossil fuels cheaper. To put it yet another way, if you work 250 days/year (50 weeks, 5 days/week), then 17.5 days of your work is redirected to make fossil fuels cheaper.

[1] https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2023/08/22/IMF...

Re: US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security

#16

Post by llsf »

JohnFen wrote: post #6

I think the opposite -- that oil is one of the larger factors that endangers global security.

The global economy is addict to fossil fuel. So fossil fuel like any powerful drugs that is in limited supply (limited resource), it is threatening the global economy, if we continue to use it OR if we stop to use it.

We need a withdraw plan. Where we shift usage from fossil fuel to other energies (hopefully less damaging for environment, and more sustainable).

People asking to cut the production without a plan are as dangerous than people who are asking to keep using fossil fuel.

Re: US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security

#17

Post by MBCook »

JohnFen wrote: post #6

I think the opposite -- that oil is one of the larger factors that endangers global security.

What happens when the wealth ends for the Middle East? That could go very very badly.

It’s going to happen though. Even if climate change and pollution and all other ill effects didn’t exist we’d run out at some point and be in the same place.

Re: US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security

#18

Post by ok_dad »

llsf wrote: post #9
ok_dad wrote: post #3

This isn’t news, big oil has been bankrolling lobbyists across the globe to maintain their position via fear mongering about “global security”. There were several wars fought over oil in the past three decades, in fact.

As of now, fossil fuel is crucial for national security. The whole economy runs on fossil fuel. But fossil fuel has 2 main drawbacks: 1. Contribute to global warming 2. It takes millions of years to produce, and few days to consume (aka limited resource) So, we need to adapt the economy to those 2 drawbacks. Even if one thinks that global warming is not an issue, then the fact that it is a limited resource is going t…

National security or global security just means it’s necessary to maintain the status quo. If needed, in sure we could get off oil in a matter of a decade or less, but it’s just easier to use oil and not work so hard to get off of it. You don’t have to explain how we’re dependent on oil to me, anyways, dependencies being a national security threat is a failure of political leadership for decades and decades now. We should have been off oil in the 80s or 90s after the crisis in the 70s, but instead we just paid off powerful men in the Middle East with weapons and kicked the can.

Re: US oil lobby launches ad campaign to promote oil as 'vital' to global security

#19

Post by soco »

llsf wrote: post #9
ok_dad wrote: post #3

This isn’t news, big oil has been bankrolling lobbyists across the globe to maintain their position via fear mongering about “global security”. There were several wars fought over oil in the past three decades, in fact.

As of now, fossil fuel is crucial for national security. The whole economy runs on fossil fuel. But fossil fuel has 2 main drawbacks: 1. Contribute to global warming 2. It takes millions of years to produce, and few days to consume (aka limited resource) So, we need to adapt the economy to those 2 drawbacks. Even if one thinks that global warming is not an issue, then the fact that it is a limited resource is going t…

It's only a pity that most policies fall under either one or the other extreme. You suggest keeping fossils and further develop renewals until they can safely take over? Well this exact position will get most hate from both sides, thus being also the least likely to be implemented - regardless how logic and realistic it might be.
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