On January 3, U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, and flew them to New York to stand trial for drug trafficking and narco-terrorisim. At the same time, President Trump has not been shy about stating his other motivation for intervening in the country: Back in December, he said, “We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back." So what are the geopolitical ramifications of these actions? And in a world increasingly powered by renewable energy, could fossil-fueled conflicts become a thing of the past?
Episode Guests:
Luisa Palacios, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
Amy Myers Jaffe, Director, Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, NYU
Bill McKibben, Founder, Third Act and 350.org
For show notes, transcript, and related links, visit climateone.org/podcasts.
Highlights:
00:00 Intro
04:54 Luisa Palacios on growing up in Venezuela
08:59 Luisa Palacios on the risks in Venezuela's oil industry
15:15 Luisa Palacios on the climate impact of increasing Venezuela’s oil output
18:01 Amy Myers Jaffe on her reaction to the Maduro’s forced removal
21:08 Amy Myers Jaffe on what the military action is really about
28:32 Amy Myers Jaffe on the importance of the action in Venezuela
35:21 Amy Myers Jaffe on the national security aspects of clean tech
38:39 Bill McKibben on the military action in Venezuela
49:45 Bill McKibben on the “last gasp’ of the fossil fuel industry
52:26 Bill McKibben on the US reversal on climate policy and clean tech
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