I have been trying to think why the US establishment has got so behind fossil fuels. Post 2008 there is a lot of capital that has been extracted from the working class. The issue faced by the owners of that capital is that they have nowhere productive to put it. The obvious would have been to lobby government to fund a 'green transition'. It would neither have been green nor transformative, but they would have found a decent return on investment. They didn't do it. This requires explanation.
When the second gulf war happened, there was a theory about the petrodollar that did the rounds. It was a bit 'universal key to all mythologies', but it had some power and might apply here. The US can print money, and thus run a serious debt, because the dollar is the world's reserve currency. The demand for dollars is so very high as to outpace supply even when the US is printing money. That situation is maintained in part by energy, in the form of oil and gas, being traded in dollars. All production requires energy and so the world requires dollars.
You can't sell wind and sun and their is no way that labour costs in the US can make US manufacturing competitive on global markets. So without a fossil fuel based economy, the US loses its position as the world hegemon. That will be bad for the owners of capital in the US, the ruling class, and so they get behind 'drill baby drill' and hope that something else will turn up as a home for their unproductive capital.
Much too simplistic, I am sure.
#cop30, #GreenNewDeal, #ClimateChange, #PetroDollar