Donald Trump has posted yet another rant to social media – this time ordering Starmer to drill for oil in the North Sea.
With a characteristic disconnection from reality, Trump also used the opportunity to complain about …Scottish windmills, of all things. We’re guessing he means turbines, but at this point, who bloody knows?
As ever, the USA’s own fascist-in-chief is telling you to do something, it’s a pretty strong indicator that you need to do the opposite. Of course, this is particularly true in the case of North Sea oil.
Experts recently issued a stark warning to the UK Labour government: opening up new fossil fuel fields in the North Sea could ruin international climate targets. Likewise, this terrible climate leadership from the UK would also embolden other countries to do the same, greatly magnifying the predicted negative impact.
Trump blusters: ‘NO MORE WINDMILLS’
Posting to his own personal Truth Social echo chamber, Trump wrote:
Europe is desperate for Energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil, one of the greatest fields in the World. Tragic!!! Aberdeen should be booming.
Norway sells its North Sea Oil to the U.K. at double the price. They are making a fortune. U.K., which is better situated on the North Sea for purposes of energy than Norway, should, DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! It is absolutely crazy that they don’t… AND, NO MORE WINDMILLS!
This is such an impressive amount of shite to pack into 70ish words that we’re gonna need to break it down.
First and foremost, oil prices have soared precisely because of Trump and Netanyahu’s genocidal war on Iran. ‘You need to drill for oil’ is fucking rich coming from the dickhead who’s currently blockading the Strait of Hormuz.
Beyond that, the two greatest oil and gas reserves left in the UK-controlled North Sea are the notorious Rosebank and Jackdaw fields. However, even these are already over 90% depleted. As such, they’d require the use of extraction methods that are both energy-intensive and extremely costly.
Even after that, research has predicted that the two fields combined would only produce around 3% of the gas that the UK currently imports. The government’s own advisers have already admitted that:
Any increases in UK extraction of oil and gas would have, at most, a marginal effect on the prices faced by UK consumers in future.
‘Drill, baby, drill’
And then, of course, there’s the fact that the UK buys most of its oil *from the fucking US,*not Norway. Much as I enjoy watching Trump shoot himself in the foot, he can do that without the UK government’s help.
The US dictator’s use of ‘drill, baby, drill’ also highlights another fucking embarrassment for the UK. The phrase was originally a Republican campaign slogan from the late 2000s. Since then, Trump has reheated the slogan… followed by his faithful lapdogs in the Labour Party and Reform UK. Truly pathetic, that one.
Quite apart from the use of “windmills”, Trump’s side-swipe at Scottish renewables is bizarre for another reason. As of 2022, Scotland has generated more than 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources.
In fact, green energy sources are doing so well that Scotland has plans to export the excess power. In 2024, then-energy minister Neil Grey said:
Scotland has produced more renewable electricity than it consumed, demonstrating the enormous potential of Scotland’s green economy.
Scotland has the skills, talent and natural resources to become a global renewables powerhouse. Our ambition is not only to generate enough green electricity to power Scotland’s homes and businesses, but also export electricity to our neighbours, supporting jobs here in Scotland and the decarbonisation ambitions of our partners.
The transatlantic war criminal duo
Last, but by no means least, there’s one more problem with Trump’s post that I’ll mention. Namely, he’s voicing the same opinion as Tony ‘War Crimes’ Blair.
Last week, as the Independentreported, Blair and his pet Tony Blair Institute think tank called for expanded North Sea drilling. They argued that the Iran crisis exposed the UK’s vulnerability to global shocks in the oil market.
Of course, we could also mitigate this vulnerability by expanding electrification and renewable power generation. But then, that wouldn’t hasten the end of the world, so what do I know?
Unfortunately, Starmer and his excuse for a Labour Party are so pathetically easy for the right to influence that they’re already planning to roll over and drill at this point.
Again, if both Trump and Blair are telling the UK to drill, nothing could convince me faster that we need to be putting up wind turbines. Hell, or even windmills. I don’t care, I’ll turn the fucking crank myself at this point.
Featured image via the Canary
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