The worst and most stupid bit is this:
Speaking to crowds on Wednesday, vice president JD Vance said US allies are “suffering from this, frankly, more than we are.”
He claimed this was because they had “focused on a lot of green energy scams and they’re hurting a lot more than we are.”
Vance continued:"As much as we’ve got to focus on getting these gas prices down, the reality is overseas they’re feeling it far worse than we did because we’ve taken the steps to protect our energy economy.
Yes because focusing on green energy surely makes it worse… Fuck you Vance
Why are they allies when spoken to and treated like this?
This is a great question that I’m kinda raging about.
I’m Australian. Our fuel prices have increased by almost 50%. Inflation for this year is projected to be 5%.
This is a ridiculous, unnecessary war, serving the interests of a despot we have had no business in supporting.
I imagine that our Prime Minister would say, we were USA allies for 100 years before Trump, and will be for 100 years after he’s gone. It’s true that our alliance runs deep. The current AUKUS agreement concerns building submarines in partnership over several decades.
However, I’m peeved that our Prime Minister is tip toeing around avoiding saying anything mean about the pedo in chief. Trump has thrown us all under the bus for his own reasons, and absolutely deserves to be called out.
When Iran is more likely to keep its word than America, it is very frustrating to see our government keep pretending we are allies and that all is well.
Thanks for sharing your point of view. What a mess! But that’s a good point about the history of nations, others also mentioning similar sentiments.
They’re US allies, and they know Trump is an old, increasingly demented man sinking his entire political party.
Believe it or not there was a time before Trump.
And some day not too long from now, there will be a time after Trump. He has an insane amount of health conditions, and he’s the least popular president in living memory right now.
The question is if that will actually make a difference for the allies. They have shown how unstable they are, and that they are one bad president away from causing chaos for the whole fucking world. I’d hope there will have to be fundamental changes before that sentiment changes.
Sure, but Trump isn’t the problem. It’s the 30 or so percent of your country that creates Trumps and the other 70% too cowardly to throw a punch.
Ey, go ally yourself, pal, arite?
To him they are not allies his allies are on the Bored of Peace.
FTFY:
Why are they still allies when spoken to and treated like this?
Fear.
This war is probably the most effective way to promote green energy. Similar to how Windows fucking up is the best way to promote Linux. People have to suffer before attempting different solutions 💀
It truly should be a learning experience. But I genuinely don’t think Republicans in the US are capable of learning anything, especially not something as narratively inconvenient as this.
Hoii! Uh… no? Actually we’re chilling considering most cars /trucks here are ran on diesel but realistically most long range shipments are done via freight trains cuz they’re way more efficient :P Also yes it’s not affecting us the people either as we have public transit ^^
Other aspects are already addressed in the comments, but this:
He claimed this was because they had “focused on a lot of green energy scams and they’re hurting a lot more than we are.”
It doesn’t even make sense: US attacking Iran affects fossil fuel delivery; countries that focus more on green energies are more resilient to such crises, not less.
In my EU country fuel prices rose noticeably ~12%. How much in the USA?
And if JD refers to Germany’s over-reliance in Russian gas (which isn’t very green anyhow): That’s the pot calling the kettle black. The US have already lifted sanctions on Russian oil amid this war.
If a maga Republican is saying something, it’s usually the exact opposite of what they are saying that is true. Look it up, this is not a joke.
Every Accusation is a Confession
They even lifted sanctions on Iranian oil
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/20/us-sanctions-iranian-oil
They’re doing great
But isn’t lifting sanctions on Iranian oil actually the smart thing to do? Get all the oil to market, to ameliorate the supply shock. Even though it looks horrible from a PR angle.
Does lifting sanctions on a country that you’re at war with the smart thing to do? Literally helps to fund their enemy.
Also:
Energy analysts, including Brent Erickson, a managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, have said the administration’s efforts to control prices would not have a meaningful impact until the strait is opened to vessels.
Does lifting sanctions on a country that you’re at war with the smart thing to do? Literally helps to fund their enemy.
It is not a zero sum game. Letting the oil through, and thereby preventing the world market from a total tail spin, probably helps the US more than it helps Iran. So is on the surface surprising, but surprisingly rational on second look.
The problem is that no matter how many of these strategic levers governments pull, they just can’t replace the amount of oil that’s stuck waiting to move through the strait.
“Fifteen million barrels a day isn’t easy to offset anywhere,” says Dan Pickering, the chief investment officer with Pickering Energy Partners. “That’s the total production in the United States, and we’re the biggest producer in the world. There is no easy fix.”
Starting the war was a collasall fuck up that they cant fix except by ending it.
lol I’d love to hear them explain this green scam stuff
I’ve heard more than enough of it. They just repeat the same lies over and over
For anyone who don’t know, the US is the largest oil producer in the world, more than double any other country. So that’s the reason prices aren’t going up as much as they may be elsewhere, but also what that means is that when we attack Iran us oil company stocks skyrocket. People pay more, billionaires reap, hedge funds reap, the military industrial complex reaps. War as a service.
Didn’t know WaaS was a thing. This timeline is just asS.
Let’s not forget all the Venezuelan oil that the execs said was to expensive to drill, higher price might just make it lucrative.
We have tons of untapped oil fields easier to drill in the US that oil companies are sitting on, and we already get something like 1/3 of Venezuelan oil as is
But we still need the oil from the middle east, we mix our heavier oil with theirs in the refining process. We’re draining our reserves to keep the price low domestically, that and the statements that the strait will be reopened imminently is keeping the price relatively low… For now. Our economy is all speculation after all.
We have tons of untapped oil fields
But that is likely irrelevant for the timescale of this conflict, right? Surely the lead time for bringing new oil fields online is measured in years.
Nah, like a couple weeks. They ship in a team along with the equipment and then they go to town
Something like deep water rigs can take years to build, but actually tapping a well is pretty quick. But then you can’t just seal it back up - or at least humanity has never bothered to learn how to do so. So companies will sit on them for years to keep production steady, if the cost of oil falls they might move it to a sacrificial shell company and leave it leaking for tax payers to eventually clean up
Oil prices are pretty global. If you look at the prices for European oil (Brent crude) and US oil (West Texas Intermediate), then they are $14 apart. Which is not nothing, but WTI is still up by 63% from pre-war. That is still going to hurt the US economy, a lot.
Also, in the US the oil price windfall is privatized, while the oil price pain is socialized. So the US will still feel almost the full pain.
There is some fuckery in US price. Asia is $60/bbl higher. Rumors of US export controls seemed contradicted by WH on Friday, and somehow prices went down in US by $1. Possibility of US treasury heavily shorting US futures (in secret or with secret financial allies) to manipulate price. With no export controls, US price should be $4 lower than Brent, and $8-$10 lower than Asia.
Asia is $60/bbl higher.
Asia get their oil through the Hormuz straight. Of course their oil price is higher.
There probably isn’t oil tankers enough in the world to equalize the supply between the US and Asia. Hence you should not expect the price to be perfectly equalized between the US and Asia.
when I said that $10 is a normal limit for Asia premium, it is based on the shipping cost ($10) to get WTI to Asia. Brent crude premium is also high. That there may not be enough shipping capacity to pick up from US, while theoretically possible, the spread is so incredibly profitable that it shouldn’t be $50 higher than normal profit, without every ship in the world lined up to make that profit.
You surely need a lot of oil tankers to sail oil across the Pacific Ocean - because each voyage takes so long. And there needs to be export oil terminals in the US towards Asia, which I assume there isn’t currently, because Asia was supplied by the Middle East.
So a priory doesn’t seem too surprising to me, that there is a price spread.
Stupid fucking prick
He’s not stupid, his voting base is.
What’s worse is that people actually believe him.
he did reaped the popes soul.
What’s even worse is that they think that it’s a good argument by him.
Eh, I don’t know… These MAGA’s are more monsters than people at this stage.
That’s a bit too polite for me
He so perfectly embodies the fascist ethos. You aren’t suffering, as long as others are suffering more.
I can’t tell if he’s incredibly un-American, or very very American.
very very American.
This is the correct answer
Judging from the stock markets, he is right. Swedish industry stocks are down 10-15% the last month. Without steady oil, it will be a big problem for those companies i guess.
So how bad is it? We had 1.7€/l before this and like 1.9€/l now -> 11,7% rise
Where I am the petrol went from 1.8€/l to 2.1€/l that’s a 16% rise and diesel went from 1.7€/l to 2.4€/l that’s a 41% rise.
It is not just at the pump. The whole supply chain depends on oil. Industrial processes, plastics, fertilizer.
The price rise at the pump is often masked by taxes. The percentage jump for industry will be larger.
It’s not good but it’s bearable. What’s happening in the USA is definitely worse than what’s happening here, in every respect.
Ironically investing in renewable energy and EVs is how Europe can increase its energy independence. It’s not like they can pump that oil from their ground.
I imagine this war will speed up this conversion even more.
One of the biggest advantages to EVs is that they can can get their power from anywhere. And even if the current power generation is from fossil fuels, as that changes so does the overall carbon “usage” of the vehicles.
The difference is also striking when you just look at energy conversion from the fuel source in the vehicle. That EV is around 85% efficient overall at turning that electricity from the wall to movement. For a gas car, you’re looking at between 12-30% of the energy in the fuel tank being converted.
Exactly this. Thanks for mentioning it, i was listing it for exactly that reason, but I guess most people probably still think the only benefit is being environment friendly when it is also let to energy independence.
This is great video explaining common misconceptions: https://youtu.be/KtQ9nt2ZeGM
The main difference is that a modern battery has an energy density of about 0.7 MJ/kg or 700 kJ/kg, whereas gasoline has an energy density of about 45.7 MJ/kg. So, you need to pack in a lot more batteries to allow an electric car to go a meaningful distance. And, you’re hauling around all that extra weight all the time, even when the batteries are nearly empty.
The weight of the fuel tank is dwarfed by the weight of the engine, which can go from 100 (petrol kei car) to 300 (diesel) kg. The battery packs on modern EVs are still heavier, usually in the 200 - 400 kg range, but the difference isn’t as stark as fuel density alone might suggest.
Apparently an average fuel tank can hold somewhere between 40 and 80 litres. So, that’s up to (0.75 * 80 = 60) 60 kg of fuel, which can supply 2.74 GJ of energy. If you wanted 2.74 GJ of batteries in your car, it would weigh about 4000 kg. That’s double the weight of an F150, or basically the weight of a F350, engine, fuel tank, wheels, etc. included.
Now, of course, nobody puts that much battery capacity into a car or truck.
The point is, it’s not an apples to oranges comparison when you talk about the energy efficiency of an EV vs. a ICE car. ICE cars are inefficient, but carry around a very energy dense fuel source and can go hundreds, sometimes thousands of km without needing to stop. EVs have much more efficient engines, but have to drag around really heavy batteries that aren’t very energy dense. Their range is very constrained because if you wanted to match the range of an ICE car you’d have to almost double the weight of the car in batteries alone.
Personally, I like mass transit and bikes. But, if I had to own a car I’d get an electric one. Still, I know that the major drawback to electric cars is that battery energy density sucks compared to gasoline.
The point is, it’s not an apples to oranges comparison when you talk about the energy efficiency of an EV vs. a ICE car.
Energy efficiency does matter because even if you are burning diesel to generate electricity, you can make power stations a lot more efficient than car engines. So shifting from ICE cars to EVs would reduce fuel use even in the absence of green electricity.
ICE cars are inefficient, but carry around a very energy dense fuel source and can go hundreds, sometimes thousands of km without needing to stop. EVs have much more efficient engines, but have to drag around really heavy batteries that aren’t very energy dense.
This is true, but like I said, the difference isn’t huge. An ICE car’s fuel + engine would be in the 100 - 400kg range, while an EV’s batteries + motor would be in the 200 - 500kg range. An additional 10% or so of weight is bad, but is outweighed by the at least fourfold increase in efficiency.
60 kg of fuel, which can supply 2.74 GJ of energy
‘Contain’, not ‘can supply’ 2.74 GJ of energy. At 20% efficiency, you’d need a 800kg battery to match.
It’s not ironic at all.
This is what I’ve been saying as well. For ages now. However I was listening to pre election political debate with parties on TV and everybody just kept talking about oil, oil and oil. Nobody even mentioned alternatives or anything else at all. And we even have a prime minister coming straight from electric energy distributor. So I’m not putting too much fate here.
My question is which allies? Europe is not an ally, China is not an ally. UK is not an ally, Middle East is not an ally except Israel and UAE. So who is he even talking about?
Okay, I admit that I’m terrible at human relationships.
But even I know that if you ask someone for help and then gloat over them they’re going to be less likely to help you.
How are these guys this bad at this and still in global office?
They think they can bully all the other governments into submitting to their wishes, because they assume that’s how the USA has always been able to dominate the post-ww2 world.
They’re wrong. They do not understand soft power. They do not understand that US economic power is a mutual decision, and that we foreigners decided to allow the US its leadership because we benefited too.
They do not understand that military power has limits. They are unable to comprehend that they have severely weakened the USA as a world power, and given China victory after victory, and - maybe permanently - lost the trust of Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Korea.
Yes, the ultra-conservative forces behind people in the administration like Stephen Miller and Russ Vought - ie the Heritage Society and associated organisations - have won a historic series of ideological victories over their hated progressive enemies. The cost, though, is that they have badly damaged the USA’s power to direct the course of international events.
For evidence of that, see Trump’s pathetic whimpering that none of the former friends of the US have turned up to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz.
He cannot see that the way we were keeping it open was by not attacking Iran. That was the reality. There would be no point in sending ships. You could only stop Iran by killing millions of Iranians, and losing millions of your own troops, in a ground invasion, and the example of Hezbollah and Gaza shows even that might not work.
It’s insane that he might do it anyway.
How? Look at this generation of voters. Thats how!
They have the most access to information compared to any period of human history, and yet are demonstratably less factually informed and less humanly resourceful than ever before.
Social engineering by SOME gone wrong
Or right, depending on the objective.
They have the most access to misinformation as well.
We all have more access to misinformation. The problem is that most people in the US have no critical thinking skills.
This is by design. Conservatives get outraged if you try to add critical thinking classes to school curriculum.
