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Of the 13 billion barrels of oil the US produces every day, 1.5 billion (15%) comes from the gulf. Despite this being more than enough oil (we are a net-exporter of oil), we import crude oil because our refineries need a different type of crude. The extra 15% of oil we are killing the environment over is for making a profit to export to other nations. It is not for national security.
Guess which nation also has this heavy type of crude oil? Venezuela, which was invaded earlier this year.

If I recall correctly, the US used to have more of this type of oil, that depleted, so now they still have all the refineries on the east coast and need to import it.

It's millions of barrels per day not billions.
BILLION? My god, I didn't know we produced that much.

I've known for a while that our refineries are tuned to lighter "sweet crude" than what Canada or US produces, and long have I thought that a more benevolent, heavy-handed government should incentivize our domestic industry to handle our own oil for national security.

2028: "To be secure as a nation we need to stamp out all dissent against the government and require all citizens to swear unyielding loyalty to the President."
This is 100% coming barring a mass political rising
Wasn’t diversifying US energy sources also a national security issue? And wind energy was set aside because, wait for it, they killed animals. Birds to be specific.
Remember when we destroyed Iran's nuclear program before we destroyed it last month? This administration is perfectly consistent with being inconsistent.
I'm not sure about all wind energy, but offshore wind energy has been set aside because Donald Trump's Scotland Golf Club lost a lawsuit to an offshore wind farm a decade ago, and he appears to have a blanket opposition to the concept ever since.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_International_Golf_Club_...

(personal commentary/context: I want more energy production of any economically viable category: wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, natural gas, etc. I have no blanket opposition to offshore oil drilling or offshore wind energy)

"National security issue" is the root password to the constitution and the rule of law. It'll get used whenever someone wants to bypass either or both.
The folks in charge just want what they want without rhyme or reason. Mix a mind virus and joy of power together and get your eratic clown show. And many times it can go on a lot longer than you'd ever guess.

Unfortunately as a society we keep moving further and further away from the foundations of a functional society based on a representative government and considering the general welfare.

Reminder that cats and buildings kill more birds than windmills.
That’s not the point. The point is if you lose a presidential election to a grifter, most folks are screwed in almost unlimited ways. Don’t lose an election to a grifter. Be more practical when it comes to not losing an election to a grifter next time.
The thing says they can now dispose of trash and do loud things in the Gulf of Mexico (America haha). But what does that actually get us?

Googling and LLMing around it allows normal sea operations in the Gulf so drilling is possible etc. Interesting. So they’re going to try to get more oil out of there?

Can’t say I trust their competence very much here. It’s more likely to be a carve out for a friend than anything else and I’m pretty pro deregulation in general.

This is more preemptive I suspect- 'they' have been reclassifying different species trying to get a bona-fide Gulf endangered one to use against exploration and production. Especially that one whale subspecies.

This kills that on multiple fronts.

The goal for these companies is not to extract more oil. This is the bait. They want to produce the same amount of oil they already do, but pay less for the expenses of doing anything to comply with regulations.
> But what does that actually get us?

Who said anything about "us". Every action taken by this administration is specifically for self-enrichment (directly or to cronies/patrons), the destruction of things that they deem "woke", and the punishment and persecution of their perceived enemies and non-humans.

I wish that was hyperbole, and that I could be proven wrong.

Note that they also increased the limit on Ethanol. Now, E15 is legal (instead of E10), again in the interest of “national security”.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-feds-plan-to-start-dilutin...

That's a hidden farmer's subside. It wil probably only benefit on kind of farm, the industrial one though, so I don't think electorally this is great.
"Definitive of what capitalism is, this separation severely limits the scope of the political. Devolving vast aspects of social life to the rule of “the market” (in reality, to large corporations), it declares them off-limits to democratic decision-making, collective action, and public control. Its very structure, therefore, deprives us of the ability to decide collectively exactly what and how much we want to produce, on what energic basis and through what kinds of social relations. It deprives us, too, of the capacity to determine how we want to use the social surplus we collectively produce; how we want to relate to nature and to future generations; how we want to organize the work of social reproduction and its relation to that of production. Capitalism, in sum, is fundamentally anti-democratic. Even in the best-case scenario, democracy in a capitalist society must perforce be limited and weak."

https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/publications/centerpiece/fall2...

There are very few purely capitalistic countries. All countries that I can think of use taxes and regulations to influence market equilibrium. „letting the market figure it out“ is usually the political expression for „I like the current state better than what the opposition proposed“.
Do you really want to see votes on "exactly what and how much we want to produce" at each factory? Or what farmers plant?
Fascism is the logical fallback to protect wealth from redistribution.
Capitalism (in the libertarian sense of the word) makes these "vast aspects of social life" off-limits to democratic deliberation in the same way it does for unrelated private corporations: without authorization from the rightful owners, it is supposed to be illegal (not to say that has stopped either).

She uses terms like "us", "we", "collective", but who are these? All the constituents, the people, in their totality, they are not, for people are not a homogeneous mass. In practice, it, along with democracy, just becomes a nice rhetoric device for stripping people of their rights.

Democracy was never really a good solution to an inclusive society-wide governance system. Most successful implementation even need to add limits to it to prevent the mob rule that's a feature to it. Some try to pretend it is anti-authoritarian, because the members get a vote. But that vote only matters when the voter is part of a majority. If they aren't, they might as well not even have it. That alone already creates a hierarchy. And it only gets worse: most people belong to minority of sorts, and they, by design, get alienated. This means that the doesn't really represent anyone... other than itself, very much like a corporation.

Which leads to the final point: capitalism (in the Marxist sense of the word) isn't antidemocratic. Democracy isn't in opposition to corporatocrocy, it requires a corporation large enough to own everything. Thus, dare I say, the democracy she seems to envision might as well be one of the forms of ultra peak capitalism.

I always thought Trump was such a joke. Completely non-threatening, just a big personality who kept popping up here and there. I even bought a MAGA hat back in the summer before the election explicitly because I thought it was hysterical he was even running, and knew he would lose. I thought the whole thing was a gag, a joke, just like Bloomberg. It didn't even cross my mind that someone so woefully inadequate for the position, so abrasive, so criminal, so disgusting -- could ever get elected to the presidency. In the grand scheme of the universe, he was a nobody. His name would have died with him.

Boy was I wrong. His name will be studied for decades to come in all the worst ways.

He definitely combines traits from a best hits list of notorious leaders, ranging from King George III, Kaiser Wilhelm, Santa Ana, Porfirio Díaz, and more.

And Americans are supposed to understand this, but largely don't. Kind of like lots of people love the founders in theory, but act like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would have loved a theocracy. And basically don't know anything about stuff that would have influenced them, like the Commonwealth and the Glorious Revolution.

It's an absolutely literal Confederacy of Dunces.

Sorry, are you referring to the summer of 2015? Because purchasing a MAGA hat in 2025 for the lols is tasteless and shameful. I share your surprise generally, but at a certain point it’s just irresponsible to treat it all like a joke with no consequences
Yes, but this is for national (midterm election) security, so we need gas prices down before November.
I wonder how much the current conflict with the Strait of Hormuz [^0] had to do with this terrifying decision.

[^0] https://old.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/1s8u2ho/trump_says_...

They called the committee god squad?
Yes, as it is only convened when the extinction of an entire species is on the table.
Fishermen in the gulf were already struggling. Seems like a death knell to that industry
Oppositional defiant disorder on a cultural scale. Liberals want to protect animals and shift to use of green energy; therefore the fossil fuel industry must be promoted at all cost (even when they don't want to be, as with Trump forcing obsolete coal plants to remain open) and endangered animals must be killed off.
It often seems like the contemporary American "conservative" feels that in order to oppose progressives they must become regressives.
I've noticed this for MAGA people I've met in real life but for the people actually making decisions, this administration (and their friends/political donors) has been making too much money for basic greed to not also be a huge factor.
Nah, that's just bribes.
Now it's evident that a Rep POTUS mainly surrenders to the military/oil regime while a Dem to the banks/funds one. Tech and movie industry usually follow and adapt to the leader.
Don’t say US. They don’t speak for us all. Only 49.8% of voters. Of which I hope a significant portion have seen the error of their ways come midterms and the next election.

Every day is a new embarrassment law or action like this for America until then. I’ve never felt lower about America in my lifetime. The hope I had, the pride I felt in America, is gone, chunk by chunk, piece by piece, every day.