Oil, politics and the health of the planet

Feb 4, 2026
5 hrs ago
2

Editor,

NPR reports that Trump has agreed to reduce tariffs on India from 25% to 18%, in return for India’s agreement to stop buying Russian oil, and to buy American and Venezuelan oil, instead.

(2) comments

Dirk van Ulden Feb 4, 2026 8:35am

Let's see Mark. How many more Russian and Ukrainian soldiers need to die if only to keep the oil supply chain shorter? Don't you realize that starving Putin's oil revenues has an effect that is far greater than the elusive climate change death rate? TDS again?

Terence Y Feb 4, 2026 8:23am

Thanks for your letter, Mr. Behrend, but like it or not, folks only talk the talk about saving the world from fossil fuels and carbon emissions instead of walking the walk. For evidence, review the participation of annual COP climate conferences. Folks are taking 400+ private jets and who knows how many public jets to attend a climate conference to lecture people on saving the world while they burn fossil fuels and emit carbon to their hearts’ content. I wouldn’t say all decisions come down to politics. It appears some decisions come down to economics. BTW, I believe California imports about 30% of their crude oil from Iraq and the Middle East. Why? When California can drill, baby, drill. If California doesn’t care much about the health of the planet why would anyone else?

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