February 26, 2022

Oil Industry Uses Ukraine Invasion to Push for More Drilling

Source: New York Times

Russian troops hadn’t yet begun their full-on assault on Ukraine late Wednesday when the rallying cry came from the American oil and gas industry.

“As crisis looms in Ukraine, U.S. energy leadership is more important than ever,” the American Petroleum Institute, the powerful industry lobby group, wrote on Twitter with a photo that read: “Let’s unleash American energy. Protect our energy security.”

The crux of the industry’s argument is that any effort to restrain drilling in America makes a world already reeling from high oil prices more dependent on oil and gas from Russia, a rival and belligerent fossil fuel superpower.

The industry’s demands have focused on reversing steps the Biden administration has taken to start reining in the production of fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/26/climate/ukraine-oil-lobby-biden-drilling.html

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The problem, of course, is that the oil industry cares far more about unleashing higher profits than it does 'unleashing American energy.'

It is the way of capitalism, I know. But if we really cared about 'American energy security,' we'd be focused more on solar, wind and other renewables.

And, we'd be working together to ensure even more workers could work remotely to further reduce our carbon footprint...