“Venezuelan oil has been powering Cuba’s electricity grid, and the Trump administration may use the fuel issue to effect changes in the island-nation’s leadership.”

“More heavy oil from Venezuela will put pressure on Canada’s role as a supplier of heavy crude to the U.S. It may also pressure Saudi Arabia, which ships heavy oil to feed its refineries in the U.S.”

“Access to Venezuela’s substantial oil reserves is likely to put a cap on how high global oil prices might rise in the future….”

Little did we realize how interesting 2026’s energy market would become when we finished writing our January 3 Energy Musings, “Energy Finishes 2025 In 8th Place Out Of 11 Sectors.” Just a few hours after finishing and scheduling its publication, United States Special Forces and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, supported by military forces, mounted a military-style campaign to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.…

“The AI policy is the latest manifestation of the White House’s approach to many economic issues: centralized government actions in an attempt to sidestep normal economic policies. It starts with high tariffs…. Then there is direct interference in the economy.”

President Donald Trump has launched a national industrial policy backing artificial intelligence in a self-proclaimed race against China for world AI dominance. It’s called the “Genesis Mission” (not to be confused with the 1997 Sci Fi Channel TV series Mission Genesis).

On Thanksgiving week (Nov. 24), Trump promulgated Executive Order 14303, “Launching the Genesis Mission.” It proclaims, “Today, America is in a race for global technology dominance in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), an important frontier of scientific discovery and economic growth.” 

The executive order added:

In this pivotal moment, the challenges we face require a historic national effort, comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project that was instrumental to our victory in World War II and was a critical basis for the foundation of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories.” 

Ed. Note: A Hall of Shame business memo turns 28 years old today. Dated December 12, 1997, it was written by Enron lobbyist John Palmisano in the afterglow of the Kyoto Protocol agreement.

“This agreement will be good for Enron stock!!” (-John Palmisano, Enron lobbyist)

Global green planners back in the 1990s were euphoric that somehow, someway, the world had embarked on an irreversible course of climate control (and thus industrial and land-use control). But the Kyoto Protocol predictably failed, and with the Paris climate accord of 2015 teetering (COP30), the momentum has shifted toward climate and energy realism.

Palmisano’s on-the-ground 1997 memo cites the benefits for first-mover ‘green’ Enron. Enron, in fact, had no less than six profit centers tied to pricing carbon dioxide (CO2)–and seven if CO2 were capped and traded.…

“… has the entire ‘Climate Change’ and Net Zero agendas now moved far away from true environmentalism? And has it forgotten the true sustainability principles of ‘People, Planet and Profit’ to become primarily focussed on one ‘P’ (profit)?” ( – Adrian Hayes, below)

The transparent failure last month of COP30 has been acknowledged by the realists and downplayed by the hangers-on and funding-needy NGOs. Despite the futile, wasteful cause, plans for COP31 have begun.

But realism has become mainstream. And hard questions are being asked. Consider this from Adrian Hayes:

Trigger warning! I’ve spoken at a COP conference two years ago (COP28) and know there’s a lot of good stuff, and developing technology, that takes place on the fringes. But as COP30 finished last week in Brazil, it yet again caused an accusation of hypocrisy.…