Should America nationalize its oil industry in a Socialist takeover?
Columnist Owen Jones of the prominent UK newspaper The Guardian published an article this week (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/climate-change-oil-companies-extinction-rebellion) advocating the American government nationalize oil companies – much like Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela – to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The article illustrates the authoritarian socialist agenda motivating the international climate industrial complex.
Jones commended climate protesters but argued the democratic process is not working. The solution, wrote Jones, is to eliminate economic freedom.
“Demands must radicalize,” wrote Jones. Moreover, “the focus must shift to the fossil fuel companies and the banks. As long as they remain under private ownership on a global scale, humanity’s future will be threatened.”
The government takeover of oil companies in Venezuela has brought tremendous misery to the Venezuelan people. Venezuela holds the world’s largest oil reserves, yet production has fallen by more than half (https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2019/01/29/charting-the-decline-of-venezuelas-oil-industry/#79b847734ecd) under socialist mismanagement. With oil production and revenues dropping, so has Venezuelan living standards. According to Jones, this is exactly what the United States needs, also.
“So long as these sectors remain in private hands, they will continue to place short-term profit for elite investors ahead of the future of the planet and continued existence of humanity,” wrote Owens. “They must be brought under public ownership, with a legal mandate to ‘green’ the economy.”
In other words, private ownership maximizes production. While the American economy has tremendously benefited from the dramatic growth in domestic oil production – and the lessening dependence on hostile foreign nations for our vital energy supplies – American living standards should take a back seat to alarmist climate agendas. Venezuela, rather than America, provides a textbook example of how we should run our economy.
The environmental left is making the choice clear regarding the international climate agenda: we can continue to respect American individual economic freedom or we can go the Venezuela route and fight a fictitious global warming crisis.
We at CFACT will choose America.