US President Is Obsessed With Oil. But Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/opinion/trump-energy-china-future.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FlA.AKBg.vz0wqc7KZSPg

27 Comments

  1. PeanutCheeseBar on

    US President is obsessed with money, and backs whatever ideological horse will make him the most.

    He was perfectly fine backing Teslas as long as Musk gave him money, but now it’s on to the next big grift.

  2. You still need oil and lots of it, even if every mode of transit is electric which won’t probably happen in my lifetime.

  3. Handing the Renewable Energy transition over to the Chinese to lead will come to be seen as one of the biggest blunders in American energy history. The USA is leaving trillions in future energy infrastructure spending on the table for other countries to happily grab, and the upshot? Most of the renewable energy tech others will now profit from was invented in the USA.

    With his love of everything fossil, Trump is doubling down on the proverbial horse when the horseless carriage has already taken the market over.

    Take a look at these two [graphs showing new power utility installations by type](https://www.renewable-energy-industry.com/news/world/article-7022-usa-rely-on-33-gw-of-solar-power-instead-of-coal-market-ignores-trumps-fossil-fuel-agenda). The race from carbon-based to renewables becoming the dominant producer for new electricity is over, and it wasn’t even close.

  4. Leave it to the New York Times to feature coal as clean energy just to try to dunk on the oil companies and their political puppets

  5. It’s by design. Republican voters are fine if the US is no longer a top player on the global stage. They think innovation and science are doing more harm than good. The midwest is about to get royally fucked for the umpteenth time.

  6. More-Razzmatazz-6804 on

    trump is putting America 20 years back to the past… he´s destroying your country, and the One is winning is China… China is my new favorite country outside EU right now! Hope to visit this year 🙂

  7. Trump playing checkers when the world has moved on to chess. Nobody is willing to go back to checkers

  8. Anything that would benefit the States, he is not interested in. He is doing this for revenge against a country that tried to put him in jail for the rest of his life.

    He will ruin the United States and his cult following will cheer him on until they are cornered themselves

  9. yorcharturoqro on

    Senile US president that thinks we are still in the 70s is obsessed with coal and oil, while the rest of the world is moving towards better energy alternatives.

  10. To the surprise of nobody Trump only cares about what can make him rich right now. He’ll bankrupt an entire nation to put an extra dollar in his pocket.

  11. Trump is god damn 80! The oldest POTUS ever. There’s should be a rule that the POTUS should not be more than 70!

  12. Altruistic-Key-369 on

    😂 What? The fuck did they put in the drinking water in the states man?

    Oil will NEVER go out of style. Too useful in manufacturing well… Everything. From Asphalt to Plastics to lubricants. everything is Hydrocarbon derived.

    Arguably the Chinese HAVE to move to battery tech because China ISNT rich in oil. It’s too valuable to burn off for energy.

  13. teethinthedarkness on

    he’s a fossil with demons whispering in his ears, of course he’s obsessed with oil

  14. No_Construction2407 on

    Possibly Canadian batteries considering Quebec sits on the worlds largest “endless” supply of lithium. Then again they are letting a Chinese company set up shop there.

  15. Trump is like if you distilled the very worst qualities of the Boomer generation and made that blob of ignorance, hate, selfishness, fear and resistance to change sentient.

  16. Whoever makes the 1k mile solidstate battery wins. Even if that takes 15mins to charge it will be monumental.