The Hateful Petroligarchy
One of the things the Donald Trump presidency has made very clear is the existence of a hateful petroligarchy in this country. This was why Joe Biden was grilled about his plans for limiting fracking in the nation. It was also why he backed away from previous statements in which he had said he would ban fracking.
There are many people whose livelihoods are based upon fracking, unfortunately. This means they are going to support the petroligarchy that feeds them. They have no choice. This is a problem of allowing fracking in the first place. Once there is a whole economy around it, there are many more hurdles to slowing it down when people’s incomes are going to suffer.
By busting on Biden for fracking, the Republicans were able to keep Pennsylvania in play. There are a number of people who make there living this way. It does not matter whether it is good for the planet, the country or the people, because their incomes are tied to fracking. They are inclined to vote for the candidate who will support their incomes.
However, the aforementioned are things we all understand and which makes the banning of fracking so difficult. These are not revelations which shine a light on the power of petroleum in the United States. Well then what do I mean by a hateful petroligarchy then?
Well it all started about a year ago when there was so much consternation about Trump’s withdrawal of troops in Syria. Trump has a very complicated relationship with the military. I think he felt he should not put his most passionate supporters, the enlisted, into another unwinnable civil war in somebody else’s country. Nonetheless, Trump took tons and tons of heat for pulling the troops out of Syria. He was able to take most of the heat off by simply announcing the US military controlled Syria’s oil.
The old chant from the Iraq War protesters was loud in my ears again. “No Blood for Oil!” At the time, I was a little skeptical that this was the main reason. It seemed like a blood feud between the Husseins and the Bushes to me at the time. The brutality of the invasion and occupation made me unable to believe it was all about oil. As the son of a veteran and the grandson of a man who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, I could not believe military people would put their soldiers in harm’s way for oil.
Trump’s handling of Syria and his ability to quiet the critics by simply making sure the oil fields were secured was shocking. It was a brazen admission the American military was engaged in seizing the assets of a sovereign nation through force. I guess I was prepped for the admission by the Iraq War veterans I had spoken to over the years. So many of those who had participated in the original invasion told me it was ALL ABOUT the oil. They were given orders to secure the oil fields as their primary mission, not preserve civilian life or critical infrastructure like hospitals. Nope, it was all about the oil fields, I was told.
Queue 2020 and Syria was no longer in the news or on my mind. Now a pandemic loomed making domestic issue central to us all. We might have wanted to concentrate on domestic issues and our pandemic, but the petroligarchy had other ideas. As lockdowns loomed, instead of concentrating on our domestic issues, we were up to our eyeballs in Venezuela.
Venezuela has a lot of oil and the pandemic had brought an incredible glut of oil. Prices of petroleum were falling. Venezuela was staying afloat with the help of the Russians. There were battles in OPEC too. The oil glut was killing the prices. What could the petroligarchy do about this problem?
Of course, the answer was to use the American military. Trump deployed enormous resources into the Caribbean to interdict “drugs” or maybe oil from Venezuela. The Russians knew they were not going to be able to get the oil out any longer so they left. As the pandemic became real in America, the petroligarchy was engaged in protecting the price of its products.
The petroligarchy did not stop there. Trump offered to basically pay rig operators NOT to pump. He claimed the oil was being “stored” in the ground for future use. Additionally, once the stimulus package was passed, we were able to watch our president genuflect to the petroligarchy on live TV.
There was no way for me to ignore the petroligarchy any longer. It was so powerful that oil executives could sit with the president and wax poetically about how the stimulus would be so helpful to those Mom & Pop rig operators. The petroligarchy again was also able to leverage the power of the American military to help support the price of oil during a pandemic.
This last year has brought the petroligarchy out of the shadows. The petroligarchy is clearly using the military for its own ends. Trump felt his presidency’s viability was directly tied to his service to the petroligarchy. Instead of dealing with the pandemic, we deployed our troops to interdict drugs? No I think not, I think Trump was securing support from the petroligarchy.
It may be Mr. Trump is going to be leaving soon despite his loyal support of the petroligarchy. However, the petroligarchy is not going anywhere. Their power is clear. The pressure on Biden will be intense to leave the oil companies and extractive industries alone. Americans need to wake up to the hateful petroligarchy before it becomes the sole foreign policy initiative we pursue.
