Editor's note: Nina-Bytes is a weekday blogging series that features short analysis and commentary on articles from around the web.
US Oil Companies Set to Reap Up to $126B in Extra Profits Amid War on Ukraine
Alright folks, let's start with a little Pop Quiz here. What's worse for a planetary ecosystem on the brink of collapse, than a huge war? The answer of course is a huge fossil fuel war that leads to massively increased production, and widespread profiteering by an oil and gas sector that should by all rights be charged with crimes against humanity already.
Let's drill down into just one small example of that profiteering today by looking at this March 29th, 2022 summary by Jake Johnson, over at Common Dreams. Inside we find that according to a meticulous analysis conducted by a coalition of watchdog groups, Big Oil in America stands to make a killing on the fallout from the invasion of Ukraine. From the article in question:
"Under conservative estimates, we find the U.S. upstream oil and gas industry will collect a windfall of $37 to $126 billion in 2022 alone," the groups' report states."
There will of course be those who want to quibble about the significant difference between thirty-seven billion dollars, and a hundred and twenty billion dollars, but from my distinctly labor class perspective, this is pretty obviously war profiteering by another name. Please keep in mind that this is an industry that's already raking profits in hand over fist, while openly threatening the existence of most life on earth, every single day. Whether it's a question of cause, or effect, why should humanity continue to tolerate a business that rings up big money every time (primarily poor) people die?
As long time readers of Nina-Bytes will no doubt be aware, I'm firmly in favor of not only disbanding the entire fossil fuel industry, but also seizing their ill-gotten profits, and the profits of their investors, to fight climate change. If war profiteering on the brink of a climate apocalypse isn't enough for you, will spending billions of dollars to hide the truth about fossil fuels from the public do? How many wars over a gas field that should be kept in the ground does it take, before the price is too high? How many dead bodies does it require for "respectable" CEOs to become mass murderers?
Yet collectively in the Pig Empire, we live in a society where this industry's army of lobbyists write the laws designed to fight climate catastrophe. Indeed, these same corporations, headed by mass murderers, easily buy and sell our politicians like so many sow bellies. Do you really believe the guys raking in billions from this war, are encouraging their in-pocket representatives to sue for peace? I sure don't. Once you're prepared to put billions of lives at risk to snag a quarterly bonus, what's one more natural gas war on the edge of Europe?
Like most observers, I hope (for the sake of labor class folks everywhere) that Vladimir Putin will call off his invasion; the price of peace, even for him, is at an all-time low right now. Regardless of how this sad story ends however, the simple truth is that the fossil fuel industry represents an existential threat to all life on earth, and a primary generator of imperialist wars. It does no good to pray for peace, while bathing yourself in profits from the black blood of war. Big Oil must die; or it will ensure that the rest of us do instead - and those are just the facts, Jack.
nina illingworth
Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic, and analyst.
You can find my work at NIDC, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog
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