Trump and the fossil fuel industry’s attacks on sustainability
By Paul Atkin, Greener Jobs Alliance
The attempt to reassert US Global Energy Dominance based on digging in on fossil fuels is being undermined by the increasingly rapid spread of renewable energy – especially solar panels – across the world; leading to countries either already having passed peak fossil fuel use, or approaching it, leading to Fossil Fuel investment increasingly understood to be stranded assets, beneath all the bravado and bluster.
Hence the hectic pace of interventions since the New Year and some of the paradoxes – trying to seize control of Venezuela’s oil on behalf of Fossil Fuel companies that are none too keen on investing in it and who see it as a “poisoned chalice”.
The Times notes that Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, an estimated 303bn barrels: but that restoring oil output to former highs could cost up to $200bn “under an arduous process lasting more than a decade”; and even doubling production to 2m barrels by the early 2030s would cost $115bn – some three times ExxonMobil and Chevron’s combined capital expenditure last year.
Reuters also notes that oil prices fell due to “expectations of ample global supply amid weak demand” on the prospect of higher Venezuelan production, which, if sustained, would “hurt” US shale firms, which the Financial Times reports as “seething over the president’s plan to flood America with Venezuelan crude”.
- a symptom of a trajectory of climate change that, left unchecked, would lead to water wars (meaning that US interventions in large parts of the world would have to bring in their own water supplies) and, later, the collapse of infrastructure, then social order, then the armed forces themselves even in the US as the impacts of it overwhelmed the capacity to respond and
- as an opportunity for the US to take control of the resources uncovered by it, including the hydrocarbons driving the crisis in the first place.
The level of cognitive dissonance is mind-boggling. Both Greenland and Venezuela also have large reserves of minerals needed for energy transition and advanced weaponry. The Guardian notes that the US attacks will ultimately decide whether this “vast mineral wealth” helps to drive the energy transition or a “buildup of military power to defend…fossil-fuel interests”.
The UK government is continuing to invest in renewable energy and grid upgrades and will need to continue the current pace of this to meet its electrification targets (8GW of extra capacity annually).
But this trajectory towards sustainability is coming under ferocious attack from the UK agents of the Trump administration and Fossil Fuel industry (Conservatives and Reform at its core with most of the Daily Press in braying support) with a massive campaign of disinformation which, were it to succeed, would lead to more carbon emissions, higher energy bills, fewer jobs…and higher profits for Fossil Fuel companies (which is where the motivation comes from).
This trajectory will also be put at risk from the drive to more than double military spending by 2035, as will any investment in education, health, transport infrastructure – or anything else worthwhile – so making sure that the trade union movement continues to push back against this is vital. This Open Letter from Demilitarise Education is part of that, so please sign and pass it around.
- Paul Atkin is the editor of the Greener Jobs Alliance, you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter/X.
- This article was originally published by the Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) February 2026 Newsletter – you can read the newsletter in full here.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
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