U.S. Declared an Energy Emergency, Then Paid $4B for Less Energy

forbes.com

47 points·speckx··4 comments

Is anyone really surprised that this administration is a tool of the petroleum industry?

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/us/snplus/business/2026/07/31/...

You had me at "this administration is a tool."

A few days ago I posted that the US is thinking small and short term. And that China, for all its faults, is at least rationally looking at the future and investing in renewables.

It's exactly stuff like this that I'm talking about. Just... Peltola corrupt policy that benefits no one except a few very rich people, and Congress seems totally fine with it.

Like, why is this even partisan? Why aren't the most ardent right wingers going, "we're losing to China on high tech energy!" I recognize that comes from a place of xenophobia, but at least it would make sense to me. Instead we get investments into oil and gas, cutting projects that clearly would help the country. It's stunning.

As you say, it's xenophobia, but you have to take account that the "xeno" includes American liberals as well.

Right wings define the "us" as "the people who use oil and gas". That was what made the country rich in the first place, and anybody attempting to change at must be trying to dethrone American power.

Obviously that conflicts with another part of their definition of "us", as technological innovators. The conflict set up by idealizing the 1950s creates a kind of weird retro-futurism.

We all deal with cognitive dissonance, so I wouldn't criticize them too hard for that. But when it comes to fossil fuels, it requires denying rather a lot of science and economics, and that's not going to end well.

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