Trump’s thirst for Venezuelan crude will hasten the death of oil |
Oil platforms in Maracaibo, Venezuela. While U.S. President Donald Trump may have won the battle for Venezuelan oil, he may also have lost the war for global energy dominance.FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images
John Rapley is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. He is an author and academic whose books include Why Empires Fall and Twilight of the Money Gods.
In Canada, there was anxious chatter over the weekend that the United States’ daring move to apprehend Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and secure the country’s oil reserves might hurt demand for Canadian oil.
It will be years, if ever, before Canada suffers any serious loss of market share to Venezuelan exports. Nevertheless, while a handful of U.S. oil giants will reap any benefits that accrue from this operation, the industry may have just taken a body blow. Because while U.S. President Donald Trump may have won the battle for Venezuelan oil – even that isn’t yet certain – he may also have lost the war for global energy dominance that his administration has set as a strategic goal.
Mr. Trump, who as we all know thinks climate change is a hoax and hates renewable energy, wants to restore the centrality of oil in the global energy mix and secure American dominance of its supply. To attain that goal, he has rolled back initiatives to decarbonize the U.S. economy and is now setting out to seize key........