The Associated Press reports on new research linking wildfire smoke to long-term health risks. Read more in The Hill here.
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US oil capital Houston buzzes as industry limbers up for Venezuela oil rush
Reuters reporters Arathy Somasekhar and Nathan Crooks report on the growing interest among U.S. energy companies in returning to Venezuela. Read more in Reuters here.
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Are Greenland’s resources a potential boon to the United States?
There’s an interesting paradox in economics known as the “resource curse.” Simply put, areas with abundant natural resources tend to be poorer than those that face scarcity. Competing theories attempt to explain the resource curse, but one generally accepted explanation is that these resource-rich countries usually have authoritarian governments while citizens under democracies fare better.
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Withdrawing from Climate Treaties Is Mostly Symbolic, but It Has Little Upside
Last week, the Trump Administration announced its intention to withdraw the United States from several landmark international climate institutions, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In practical terms, the move is largely symbolic: U.S. participation or non-participation in these bodies has relatively little direct effect on domestic climate policy or near-term global emissions outcomes.
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America’s Critical Mineral Bottleneck Is a National Security Risk
The bold vision for America’s clean energy rests on an extremely fragile foundation. The United States is highly dependent on foreign countries for crucial minerals.
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Trump administration sets meetings with oil companies over Venezuela, source says
Read the full article in Reuters here.
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Trump says the US will be ‘very strongly involved’ in Venezuelan oil
The U.S. will be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry, President Trump said Saturday after the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Asked about the future of the country’s oil industry on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends”, Trump said, “Well, I see that we’re going to be very strongly involved in it.” Read more in The Hill...
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A Major Mining Milestone
Earlier this year, China sent up a red flag. Its Ministry of Commerce introduced export restrictions that immediately reduced the international supply of seven rare earth elements. The move followed President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, but it reminded Americans that we are always vulnerable. We need a source of rare earth elements that isn’t spelled C-H-I-N-A.