"Noting that Venezuela holds the world's largest known oil reserves, The Guardian reported that "even raising production to 1.5m barrels of oil a day from current levels of around 1m barrels would produce...more carbon pollution than what is emitted annually by major economies such as the UK and Brazil," citing University of California, Santa Barbara, professor Paasha Mahdavi. That, Mahdavi said, would be "terrible for the climate.""
"The United States has been a petro-state since long before Donald Trump came to power, under Democratic and Republican presidents alike. It was under Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden that the United States regained its position as the largest annual producer of oil and exporter of gas. Oil company CEOs populated the cabinets of Republicans George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush (whose family wealth was built on fossil fuels)."
The United States functions as a petrostate with economy and policy closely tied to oil and gas. U.S. actions targeted Venezuelan oil operations, aiming to control production and access to crude. Venezuela possesses the world's largest known oil reserves; increasing output from about one million to 1.5 million barrels per day would produce more carbon pollution than the annual emissions of major economies such as the UK and Brazil. U.S. oil production and gas exports rose under recent Democratic presidencies, and political leadership across parties has long included oil-industry figures, reinforcing fossil-fuel-centered policy choices.
Read at The Nation
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