Oilhad itself a dayon Monday . price locomote negative as oil producers looked to pay people to take petroleum off their helping hand owing to an on-going overrun crisis .
But folks , Donald Trump is on it . The presidenttweeted todaythat he ’s putting the secretaries of the Energy Department and Treasury Department on a mission to “ formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very crucial companies and Job will be secured long into the future . ”
This is the purest form of malarkey . The crude and gas industry does not have a role “ long into the hereafter ” in our climate - constrained world . And regardless , any funds to bail out the industry now — particularly the debt - riddled fracking industry — are nothing more than mitigatory forethought than a real plan . Now is n’t the meter to bail out the oil and flatulence industry in the traditional , crony capitalist way . It ’s the time to use public money in a way that benefit , well , the public and the major planet ( which , it should be noted , would profit the world also by dint of continuing to survive ) .
Photo: Getty
https://gizmodo.com/now-is-the-time-to-invest-in-a-green-new-deal-1842264171
I need to be clear that minus vegetable oil prices are bad in many regard . Bad for workers who will lose their job . Bad for the service economy in oil colour and accelerator towns that depend on said chore . sorry for the planet since some folks — particularly the chongus in the White House — will see it as a signaling to buy more oil since it ’s trashy and commit money to prop the industry up . Not good !
A judicious bailout should n’t focalise on what was , which was a break - ass system jerry - rig together by hundreds of billions in loans and subsidy . All of this was undergird by the hope of next profitability that was a mirage even before negative oil color damage .
Do n’t take my Bible for it , though . Even some petroleum chief executive officer havecome out sayingwhat a terrible investment their company have become . We should take them at face value , ignore the industriousness front groups , and not give a cent to oil color and gasolene ship’s company that want to come back to business as usual .
We should also take all the signs that a raw world is possible at face note value . When stonks did their record plunge in March , it was thefirst openingfor managed decline in the oil industry . Once the money machine went brrrr for a $ 2 trillion stimulant , the door crack up opened a piffling wider ( albeit with some caveats ) . Now , oil prices have kicked it wide open and busted it off the hinges .
actor are likely to be hit hard by the manufacture ’s precipitous decay , and we bang how that wrick out without strong politics intervention . ember companies screw workers once they started to go belly up . They ’re trying to apply the pandemic toweasel out of pay a taxmeant to help miners with grim lung while simultaneously hoovering up stimulus investment trust byhiring former administration officialsto lobby for them ( receive back , outrage boy Scott Pruitt ! ) .
Clearly this is not the road we want to go down . Data for Progresspolling published on Tuesdayshows extensive musical accompaniment for a recuperation agenda that puts people first ( additional polling itpublished on Tuesdayalso shows 39 percent of opinion poll respondents support for nationalise the fossil fuel industry ) .
“ C of oil and flatulence companies are on the verge of Chapter 11 failure , and rather of lease them to take advantage of the failure system , public ownership would help secure accountability first to workers and the public , ” Johanna Bozuwa , co - managing director of the Democracy Collaborative ’s mood and energy program , told Earther via email .
Arecent reportBozuwa author for the Next System and Oil Change International squall for a actor - first plan of attack to any fossil oil and gas bailout and lays out how to make it happen . The report also argues any bailout should in reality be part of a program to nationalize the diligence , which again , face at how the coal diligence has handled its decline if you need any other rationality to consider it .
“ Part of our proposal is a Just Transition Agency that would help provide federal guidelines and reinforcement on the transition , paired with regional and community planning to transition economies and doer off extractive industry , ” Johanna Bozuwa , co - manager of the Democracy Collaborative ’s climate and energy program and author of the nationalization report , told Earther by electronic mail . “ An analysis ofsix different european countries ’ coal transitionsincluding Spain , the Netherlands , Germany and Poland , had a integral piece of advice : anticipation is key . ”
We ’re getting near to past the anticipation stage , but policymakers can still make up time if they work decisively with any more stimulation legislation or executive director ordering . In addition to protect worker ’ bread and butter , there is also no shortage of oil and gas projects that do n’t ask dig it up fossil fuel . Canada , for example , hascommitted$1.7 billion to facilitate clean up orphan wells in Alberta , which has seen a similar vast decline in the toll of tar backbone - derived oil .
Putting apart how to help fossil fuel company begin their managed declined , now is also the sentence to put money up for renewable Energy Department . The industry has also been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic even if it has n’t been the subject of a presidential tweet and electronegative value . Also unlike petroleum and gasolene , it ’s very much the future . A number ofwiseplanshave been put out for how to keep it from stalling out in the side of the coronavirus .
The recently passed $ 2 trillion input , which includes minimum oversight measure the Trump administration is flaunting anyhow , should be a word of advice of what could come with any rock oil and gas bailout . As the Next System and Oil Change International notes , a “ no twine attached [ bailout ] would return our economy to a precarious status quo . ” We eff where that road leads , and it ’s why we need to call on away from it now .
Update , Tuesday , April 21 8:40 p.m. : This story has been updated with scuttlebutt from Johanna Bozuwa .
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