Monday, September 14, 2026

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Follow the Barrels: Trump, Russia, Venezuela—and the China Connection

                                  

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Follow the Barrels: Trump, Russia, Venezuela—and the China Connection

As prices surge, Trump’s Venezuela deal remains years from delivering—and blaming Ukraine exposes how much the global economy still depends on Russian oil.


Donald Trump just said the quiet part out loud.

He called on President Zelenskyy to stop attacking Russian refineries and diesel facilities, blaming Ukraine for contributing to the worldwide fuel shortage and higher prices.

Think about what he is saying.

Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia has spent years attacking Ukraine’s power plants, electrical grid and energy infrastructure. Ukraine is now striking the Russian refineries that supply Putin’s military and generate revenue for his war.

But Trump’s response is to tell Ukraine to stop because the world still needs Russian fuel.

Trump just admitted that Russian oil remains important to the global economy.

If Russia were truly isolated—and if its energy exports had been removed from the international market—attacks on its refineries would not have this kind of worldwide impact. Trump’s own argument acknowledges that Russian energy continues to flow through the global system.

But Ukraine is not the only reason prices are rising.

The much larger crisis is unfolding around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil has climbed above $100 a barrel as attacks threaten tankers, ports, pipelines and shipping routes across the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz remains unstable, with no guarantee that normal shipping will resume anytime soon.

Now a Saudi pipeline capable of moving approximately four million barrels of oil a day around Hormuz has been shut following a drone attack. That pipeline alone carries the equivalent of roughly 4% of the world’s oil supply. Repairs could take weeks, while available storage may keep exports moving for only several days. Oil prices rose again following the new attacks⁠.

That is the real scale of this crisis.

This is not about one Ukrainian drone hitting one Russian refinery. It is a widening energy crisis involving Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Ukraine and some of the most important shipping lanes in the world.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Iran conflict is almost over. Now he is saying oil prices may not come down until after the midterm elections.

Why would oil prices follow an American election calendar?

Wars do not end because Election Day arrives. Pipelines do not repair themselves after the votes are counted. Tankers do not start moving because a politician promises that prices will suddenly come down.

Markets respond to supply, risk and confidence. Right now, all three are under pressure.

Trump’s answer is Venezuela.

He is promoting his new agreement as the “biggest oil deal in world history” and promising that Venezuelan oil will lower prices for Americans.

But the truth about what is happening behind that agreement—and how long it would take to deliver meaningful amounts of oil—is another story entirely...



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Dueling lawsuits emerge in hydropower saga and four more stories: The Saturday Send

                                 

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CommonWealth Beacon Logo

Welcome back to the Saturday Send, a weekly digest of stories from CommonWealth Beacon that you may have missed.

This week, dueling lawsuits were filed between Massachusetts’s electric suppliers and the Canadian hydropower company tasked with delivering energy into New England. The cases call into question the viability of a project intended to provide 20 percent of Massachusetts’s electricity — and exposes just how volatile the state’s energy mix continues to be. Jordan Wolman has more on the unfolding legal drama.

Plus, as projected sea-level rise has Massachusetts considering whether communities should retreat from the coast altogether, Plymouth — one of the towns facing an uncertain future as encroaching waters threaten its people, economy, and tax base — might have a solution; an election year, surging utility costs, and an energy grid stretched to its limits has set the stage for a delicate dance between Gov. Maura Healey and the state’s utility companies; financial reports released this week show that each of the nine ballot questions that will appear before voters this November has prompted at least six figures of spending, much of it originating from wealthy individual donors; and what happens if any of those nine ballot questions actually win at the polls?

Check out those stories below, and, as always, thanks for reading.

— The CommonWealth Beacon team

Utility companies serving Massachusetts are locked in a legal battle with Hydro-Quebec over a new hydropower transmission line.
Utility companies serving Massachusetts are locked in a legal battle with Hydro-Quebec over a new hydropower transmission line.
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The unfolding legal drama marks a major pivot point for a project intended to provide 20 percent of Massachusetts’s electricity — and exposes just how fragile and volatile the state’s energy mix continues to be.

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The insurance challenge for coastal states like Massachusetts has been a vexing one. Inflation and tariffs are scrambling rebuilding costs, and the rise in climate-driven natural disasters has contributed to a recent increase in private insurers not renewing policies and the state’s insurer-of-last-resort seeing a growth in the number of enrollees.

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Healey can cast the utility companies as a critical partner when it’s advantageous for her to do so — or turn them into a political punching bag and convenient foil when it benefits her.

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Newly filed financial reports shed light on this election’s battle lines, which will pit business groups against unions, the marijuana industry against an out-of-state opponent, and transparency advocates against Beacon Hill itself.

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Nine ballot questions are in the mix for November. Here’s what you need to know about what happens if they win approval from voters.

The Codcast_Wide Banner

This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Hallie Claflin talks with Alecia McGregor, assistant professor of health policy and politics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Katie Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. They dig into the consequences of recent maternity unit closures in Springfield and Methuen, discuss where Massachusetts stands in terms of maternal health care access, and detail what power the state has, if any, to regulate health service closures and consolidations.

 
 
 
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Published by MassINC




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