Capitalism on a ventillator by Sara Flounders Lee Siu-hin

Author:Sara Flounders Lee Siu-hin [Siu-hin, Sara Flounders Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fossil fuel money funds 'back to work' movement

By Betsey Piette

posted on May 26, 2020, Workers World

Picture this: thousands of oil tankers surrounding the globe with nowhere to dock. The accompanying map shows the position of the tankers, mostly filled with oil, stranded around the world on May 4. They have no way to unload since onshore warehouses are full, pipelines are full, and under the COVID-19 economy, demand for oil is at an all-time low.

While the return on oil is negative, the cost of keeping it floating in offshore tankers costs around $30,000 per vessel per day.

In early May, the per barrel price for oil fell below zero. With shutdowns from COVID-19 impacting factory production, airplane travel and auto usage, creating a drastic reduction in fossil fuel consumption, the energy industry faces a crisis never seen before.

There is no clearer index of the magnitude of the paralysis and the problems dead-end capitalism faces. Too much oil and gas had been produced even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now there is no place to store it all.

So just what does the powerful, politically connected energy industry do?

ExxonMobil, Koch and Mercer family members have funded critics of stay-at-home orders. Groups urging states to reopen despite rising COVID-19 pandemic death rates have historic financial ties to coal, oil and gas companies, and the conservative billionaires heavily invested in climate disinformation.

According to DeSmog, a group tracking the money behind anticlimate-action campaigns, many have links to Trump. (The Guardian, May 21)

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