Crude Behavior: Venezuela and the Global Politics of Oil

Climate One

News, Social Sciences, News Commentary, Science, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On January 3, U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, and flew them to New York to stand trial for drug trafficking and narco-terrorisim. At the same time, President Trump has not been shy about stating his other motivation for intervening in the country: Back in December, he said, “We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back." So what are the geopolitical ramifications of these actions? And in a world increasingly powered by renewable energy, could fossil-fueled conflicts become a thing of the past? Episode Guests: Luisa Palacios, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University Amy Myers Jaffe, Director, Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, NYU Bill McKibben, Founder, Third Act and 350.org For show notes, transcript, and related links, visit ⁠⁠climateone.org/podcasts⁠⁠. Highlights: 00:00 Intro 04:54 Luisa Palacios on growing up in Venezuela 08:59 Luisa Palacios on the risks in Venezuela's oil industry 15:15 Luisa Palacios on the climate impact of increasing Venezuela’s oil output 18:01 Amy Myers Jaffe on her reaction to the Maduro’s forced removal 21:08 Amy Myers Jaffe on what the military action is really about 28:32 Amy Myers Jaffe on the importance of the action in Venezuela 35:21 Amy Myers Jaffe on the national security aspects of clean tech 38:39 Bill McKibben on the military action in Venezuela 49:45 Bill McKibben on the “last gasp’ of the fossil fuel industry 52:26 Bill McKibben on the US reversal on climate policy and clean tech ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at patreon.com/ClimateOne. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:49.5	The breaking news this morning, President Trump says the U.S. carried out large-scale strikes on Venezuela overnight.
0:56.8	He says it's president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Celia Flores, have been captured and flowed out of the country.
1:03.0	Attorney General Pam Bondi says both of them have been indicted and in a social media post says that they will, quote, soon face the full wrath of American justice.
1:12.9	That was the breaking news on January 3rd, when American forces captured the president of
1:18.1	Venezuela and his wife. They've since been flown to New York City and charged as narco-terrorists.
1:23.9	Ariana, that last phrase, the full wrath of American justice, that's a interesting take on the word justice, because I don't know if those two words go together in my opinion.
1:35.6	Yeah, it was a really striking move. And I think the action itself just stunned a lot of people.
1:40.7	Stunned and brought up so many questions for me. Before we did this episode, I knew about Venezuela,
1:49.0	but there was just so much that I learned about its presence in the geopolitical landscape.
1:56.0	When it comes to oil, when it comes to tensions between East and West, I mean, there is so much to unpackage here.
2:03.0	Yeah. I mean, I studied Latin American studies in college. And to me, this was so reminiscent of
	...

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