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

theguardian.com

81–88 of 88 posts

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

#81
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US hasn't been dependent on Middle East crude oil for some years. We still maintain security guarantees there to support key allies, and contain hostile foreign powers, but that will gradually fade away as part of the foreign policy pivot to Asia. European countries need to get moving on rebuilding expeditionary military forces in order to ensure reliable energy supplies (the notion that they can quickly transiti…

We are dependent in as much as gas prices going up 50 cents would cause widespread riots apparently. So yes, we are no longer getting 70% of our oil from Saudi Arabia so they can quite simply hold us by the balls, but we are still desperate to keep the rest of the world's oil supply flowing regularly so that we can keep our own internal prices "American friendly". Think how far along we would have been had Reagan not…

US gasoline prices are only somewhat linked to global crude oil prices because we lifted the export ban in 2015. If domestic prices get high enough to cause major political problems then the export ban can simply be reinstated.

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

#82

All the more reason to not need oil anymore.

Unfortunately oil is not just an energy source, and it is required for a lot of industrial chemistry that we don't yet have alternatives for.

But what's the main use of oil? Energy, right?

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

#83

All the more reason to not need oil anymore.

Unfortunately oil is not just an energy source, and it is required for a lot of industrial chemistry that we don't yet have alternatives for.

yep, but w burn 90% of it and we don't have to.

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

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately oil is not just an energy source, and it is required for a lot of industrial chemistry that we don't yet have alternatives for.

But what's the main use of oil? Energy, right?

About 2/3 of it. About 1/3 of the oil we use in the US is for industrial uses.

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

#85
post #44
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, most container sea traffic is going around Cape Horn rather than risking the Red Sea. China is working on the Belt and Road scheme to move container traffic from China to Europe to rail.

*Cape of Good Hope, they are going around Africa

Right, right. Cape Horn is the southern tip of South America.

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

#86
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Without oil dependence, the US can let the Middle East sink back into the sand. That's going to happen eventually anyway.

Have you seen where materials for batteries come from? Not exactly homegrown by hippies.

Typically mined by (say) first nation Australians in Laverton, Western Australia from Mount Weld mine: https://youtu.be/LXEbznvl0wM?t=108

Then shipped to Malaysia as concentrate for cracking & leaching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oij3c8GGWmw

Other similar stories exist in the supply chain, but that's one high volume link.

Not hippies of the 1960s San Francisco Haight-Ashbury ilk, but certainly regular people about the globe.

See the IEA: Global Supply Chains of EV Batteries (2022) - https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/4eb8c252-76b1-4710-...

    Most key minerals are mined in resource-rich countries such as Australia, Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and handled by a few major companies.

    Governments in Europe and the United States have bold public sector initiatives to develop domestic battery supply chains, but the majority of the supply chain is likely to remain Chinese through 2030.

    For example, 70% of battery production capacity announced for the period to 2030 is in China.
Note: that's "majority owned by Chinese companies" not "entirely within the country of China".

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

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they definitely aren’t wrong at this time. Don’t know that it requires an ad campaign though.

There's a surprising number of people who think 'Just Stop Oil' is a reasonable slogan, so maybe it does. (If the slogan was 'Gradually Replace Oil', almost everybody would agree, there'd be no excuse to block roads, throw paint around though, and earn attention and social media cred, though)

> there'd be no excuse to block roads, throw paint around though, and earn attention and social media cred, though

No, there wouldn’t be the oil excuse, there would be something else that riles people up to create chaos

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

#88
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 i…

> fossil fuel subsidies were $7 trillion in 2022 Nearly all of that "subsidy" is the lack of taxation of the negative externalities of fossil fuels. Even fossil fuel propaganda isn't this disingenuous with the way it frames things. That's like saying that fossil fuels are under-subsidized by trillions of dollars because they are used to power hospitals and can be used to power hospitals in Africa.

That seems fair to me. Negative externalities are part of the cost we all pay (not the oil companies), just like other forms of subsidy.
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