Green is the new black
Oil stocks tumble as President Biden backs the #BuildBackBetter meme
- Dateline
- 22 January 2023
Coal is dead in the ground, except for India and China, and even there, they’re long past the peak. Now oil stocks are tumbling, as electric vehicles soar, and solar is as cheap as chips.
It’s all thanks to US President Biden’s staunch support for #BuildBackBetter, a global movement which sought to capitalize on the fact that vast amounts of urban infrastructure needed to be replaced in the ‘Roaring 20s’. That and the fact that the pandemic years opened our eyes to the worst parts of unsustainable capitalism, like gas guzzlers and conspicuous consumption.
“We’ve been handed a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” said Biden, shortly after he took office in 2021. “We can rebuild our broken cities, damaged highways and desolate airports. Freed from the shackles of old ideas and false hopes, we can build again, only better!”
Careful to maintain support with moderates on both sides of the aisle, the new president didn’t issue a slew of executive orders, but pushed through subsidies and tax breaks to catapult new energy companies like Tesla and Plug Power into market dominance. Now solar and hydrogen stocks are getting all the new investment, and oil counters are crashing.
It’s a global phenomenon. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi and gas-rich Qatar are both targeting blue hydrogen as an export fuel, and Australia is tapping their massive solar resources to produce green hydrogen for export, from seawater. Right on their doorstep, Korea and Japan are big customers.
After the bleak, black years of Trumpism, it’s also a chance for America to shine on the global stage, and win back some of the international respect that was lost. Follow the money: Green is the new black, and Biden is the new champion of #BuildBackBetter.
Links to related stories
- Energy Transition Investment Hits Half A Trillion For The First Time – Forbes, 19 January 2021
- Hydrogen Is a Trillion Dollar Bet on the Future – Bloomberg, 2 December 2020
- In bid to boost hydrogen rollout, utilities move into industrial value chain – S&P Global, 19 January 2021
- MINDBULLET: The carbon bubble bursts – Dateline: 5 February 2021
- MINDBULLET: Saying goodbye to the concrete jungle - Dateline: 29 November 2028
Warning: Hazardous thinking at work
Despite appearances to the contrary, Futureworld cannot and does not predict the future. Our Mindbullets scenarios are fictitious and designed purely to explore possible futures, challenge and stimulate strategic thinking. Use these at your own risk. Any reference to actual people, entities or events is entirely allegorical. Copyright Futureworld International Limited. Reproduction or distribution permitted only with recognition of Copyright and the inclusion of this disclaimer.