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Final Up to date on: 14th February 2025, 11:40 am
The West Wing was a fictional TV present that featured a president who was clever, deliberative, and compassionate. A far cry from actuality, I do know, however work with me right here. In a single well-known scene, he’s enjoying chess with a senior staffer whereas a worldwide disaster is enjoying out far-off. The staffer is making an attempt to make sense of what he thinks is going on however stays puzzled. The president presents this recommendation: “See the whole board.” The US is at present shouting about tariffs from each rooftop, however thanks to 2 Substack authors — Emily Atkin at HEATED and Invoice McKibben at The Essential Years — we’re in a position to see the entire board. Collectively, they expose the aim of the tariffs brouhaha for what it’s — a political payoff for rich marketing campaign donors. When you assume that seems like corruption, you aren’t fallacious.
If you wish to perceive the tariffs imbroglio, Atkins suggests it begins with Harold Hamm. Who? Bear in mind when the so-called president met with a gaggle of oil and gasoline executives and advised them in the event that they ponied up a billion {dollars} for his marketing campaign, all their desires would come true as soon as we was elected? Hamm was the one who organized the occasion the place that bribery invitation came about. Afterwards, Hamm organized many different fundraising occasions for oil and gasoline executives. We don’t know the way a lot cash was raised as a result of the poisonous Residents United resolution by Chief Justice John Roberts shielded that info from the general public view. Some would argue that Residents United has been instrumental in placing the present occupant of the Offal Workplace in energy. When you assume this difficult proper flip in America is a latest phenomenon, you will not be seeing the entire board.
After the election, the brand new president rapidly nominated North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to steer the Division of Inside, which oversees fossil gas and renewable improvement on federal lands and waters. Burgum is shut private buddies with Harold Hamm. He went on to appoint fracking govt and local weather denier Chris Wright to steer the Division of Vitality, which oversees vitality coverage and analysis. Wright was hand-selected for the place by Harold Hamm.
In Might, a Trump advisor advised the New York Instances that Hamm “wants that LNG pause gone, he wants the California waiver and the tailpipe rule gone.” On his first day in workplace, Trump signed an govt order that focused all three of these issues. In August, the Washington Publish reported that Hamm’s coverage priorities for a Trump administration would come with “opening up more federal lands to drilling, easing the Endangered Species Act and curbing numerous regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency.” On his first day in workplace, Trump signed one other govt order that focused all these issues. Atkin notes that the putative president and his acolytes “love to suggest these pro-fossil fuel policies as some sort of benevolent act for ordinary Americans and are simply a means of lowering inflation. That’s just a distraction from the bigger picture,” she warns. “The first aim of Trump’s vitality insurance policies is to drive earnings for Hamm and the opposite oil billionaires who donated lavishly to his marketing campaign.’
Tariffs & Political Energy
What does all this should do with tariffs? Invoice McKibben has the reply to that query. He writes that in the previous couple of days, Taiwan, India, and Japan made clear they are going to be shopping for exported American LNG within the months and years forward. Why? Totally in an effort to carry off tariffs from the Trump administration. Because the Japanese prime minister put it, “We will cooperate to strengthen energy security between the two countries including increasing exports of United States liquefied natural gas to Japan in a mutually beneficial manner.”
Bloomberg says LNG importers in India are beneath stress from their authorities to achieve offers that would easy relations with Trump, however shall be on the lookout for the very best phrases earlier than signing any agreements. In the meantime, reviews from Taipei point out Taiwan is getting ready to purchase extra liquefied pure gasoline from the US to scale back its commerce surplus and probably keep away from larger tariffs. South Korea, Vietnam, and the European Union are amongst vitality consumers making an attempt to appease the bloviating tyrant within the White Home and cut back the specter of tariffs by rising purchases of LNG from the USA.
Having disclosed the tactic behind the tariffs insanity, McKibben then will get private. “I need to spotlight these shakedowns, which have largely been misplaced amidst the thousand different horrible issues the Trump administration has loosed upon the world, as a result of I do know that earlier than lengthy Large Oil shall be holding them up as proof that the world wants and needs extra fossil gas. In reality, the world desires to maneuver in solely the other way. 85 % of recent electrical era in 2023 got here from renewables and the numbers for 2024 will nearly actually be larger. That, after all, terrifies the fossil gas business — which is why they spent report quantities on November’s election. As fracking baron Harold Hamm defined, ‘We’ve obtained to do that as a result of it’s crucial election in our lifetime.’
“And now they’re getting the payoff. Trump threatens tariffs and offers to make them go away if they buy some LNG. It’s akin to a protection racket. Pay up, or your windows get broken. It’s not criminal, it’s all entirely legal. It’s just wrong. This particular protection racket makes no sense for America at large. Forget, for a moment, that LNG is a huge driver of the climate change driving fire and flood (by the time you’ve shipped it overseas it’s far worse even than coal); exporting it in huge quantities also obviously drives up the price for Americans still reliant on fracked gas for heating and cooking. The Energy Information Administration just predicted that natural gas prices will rise 21 percent in the year ahead. Politico did the math.”
McKibben provides that Paul Cicio, president of the Industrial Vitality Shoppers of America commerce affiliation, mentioned US LNG exports are pushing pure gasoline and electrical energy costs larger. Each “dollar increase in natural gas costs consumers $34 billion plus about $20 billion in higher electricity cost,” Cicio mentioned in an announcement Tuesday. It’s “only going to get worse from here as LNG exports increase.” The Sierra Membership factors out the tariffs technique “makes no sense.” They usually’re proper, McKibben says. “As long as we’re talking about the future of the planet or the cost to American consumers. But that’s not who Trump is thinking about. He’s got one constituency and one only — the Big Oil execs who bankrolled his campaign. For them, this is sweet payback, a 100-1 return on their investment.”
See The Entire Board
As soon as all of the items come into focus, what we’re witnessing is a scheme by which the US authorities has change into nothing however a shill for the fossil gas business. The impacts on the local weather are given no consideration. The impacts on the prices to particular person Individuals is given no consideration. Don Corleone could be in awe of what Don Don has performed by making all the nation a part of his private self-enrichment scheme. Bear in mind, America, we obtained right here as a result of…
Credit score: YouTube
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Author : tech365
Publish date : 2025-02-14 17:08:19
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