President Xi Is Having A Great Time

@DeWayfarer Wasn't the idea that US oil firms would take it?

@ArishMell USA can't refine it anymore than they can Chinese or Russian oil.

@DeWayfarer That's what I thought: I read that it's not much better than tar but I don't know its actual properties. I suspect the "idea" was purely the politicians', not the refiners'.

Unless the "idea" was that only the commercial ownership would be taken by the Americans, along with any products from existing Venezualen refineries.

@ArishMell They would be bellowing black smoke out of the refineries. We can only refine Arabian crude oil. Even USA shale oil must be sold outside of the country.

Wonder why China has such a pollution problem? I believe it's three times the USA carbon emissions. And Trump wants to remove those EPA laws on USA refineries.

Trump really doesn't care about the environment and doesn't believe in global climate changes. And does care about anyone's health.

@DeWayfarer Most of China's carbon-dioxide, rather than just "carbon", emissions is from burning coal, but presumably they have oil refineries capable of processing low-quality, heavy forms of petroleum.

Removing the regulations on the American refineries might not necessarily make them more polluting because they will not handle petroleum they are not designed for. I think the effects of repealing the EPA regulations will come elsewhere.

One result though might be a loss of export trade of goods to countries whose governments and citizens expect the goods to have been produced with the same environmental care as in the importing countries. Though the importers might not always have much choice.


I wondered about Trump's climate-change belief when he first appeared on the world stage in 2016. He was denying climate-change, campaigning to revive dying heavy industries like coal-mining, and suggesting American should buy Greenland. No-one seemed to make the links.

I did, and still do. I think he does believe the climate is changing though does not believe in its man-made causes; and wants it to happen. For if the climate warms enough to remove Greenland's ice cover it will reveal a very large area of bare rock ripe for minerals exploration - which of course Donald Trump wants to exploit. Never mind the effects on the low-lying, storm-prone, Southern US States.

So it is in his interest for the air and seas to warm, even though I doubt he understands the science, and whatever the consequences, provided they make money for the USA.

He also seems to think Greenland is next to the USA. Of course it isn't! Its Southern tip is level with the Hudson Strait.

@ArishMell No Trump doesn't believe in climate change at all. And even has said as much

https://www.factcheck.org/2025/09/trump-misleads-on-climate-change-and-renewables-at-u-n/


Above is just last September.

BTW Trump is even attempting to coerce Democratic states to remove their EPA programs.

It goes even as far as nuclear reactors such as San Onofre which is on a federal Marine base.

That's his way into states EPA programs. The can't do anything on federal property.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/12/trump-blue-states-target-red-states/

BTW China has THE worst carbon dioxide emissions in the world. I was under emphasizing when I said only three times as much.

@DeWayfarer Ah, what I meant was he says he does not believe in it; and he certainly dismisses any human effects on Nature because that goes against his previous election promise to revive American coal-mining and steel-making.

I suspect he does accept the climate is changing, and welcomes that, but that also means he must not accept why it is changing - even if he comprehends it.

He calling it a "hoax" and all the rest is not at all convincing because it shows he cannot argue the matter seriously and constructively. It suggests he cannot be bothered to understand it and create a useful defence for his stance. It may only be electioneering but is still a bad campaign tactic.


China is well-known for its poor pollution record, but its long-term strategy is to cut that drastically in the next few decades. Its aim is to be the world's number one industrial economy, and its system allows planning years or even decades ahead. It is now cutting back on CO2 emissions but needed be able to do so first.

I don't know India's aims. They seem a lot more vague; but India is another country that cannot reduce its pollution until it has the means to do so.

Trump's aim seems the reverse. He may be sincere in wanting the USA to recover its old industries and I can sympathise with that to a point (the UK has lost a lot too), but he shows little understanding of manufacturing industries and of industrial economy; and of their problems as well as benefits.

@ArishMell Trump is serious about climate change being a hoax. Even when he was a Democrat and not running for any office at all.

There would be no point to even say that as a democrat.

@DeWayfarer Oh, I realise he says it in all seriousness, and wants to be beleieved; but I question his motives, and whether he really means climate-change itself is a "hoax", or its human causes are the "hoax".

@ArishMell here it is the sources again. Please look at the dates.

@DeWayfarer Oh I know Donald Trump keeps saying climate change is a lie ( even if he calls it a "hoax").

Instead I question if he genuinely believes it is not happening (either naturally, by human effects or both) or he does but cynically pushes his "hoax" claim for purely political ends.

What makes me suspicioous is his desire to grab Greenland, which could lose much of its ice-sheet. If the climate is not warming so there is no prospect of terrestrial ice-cover and polar sea-ice disappearing, would he be so interested in annexing the country (and come to that, Canada)? I don't think he would be.

So my question to Trump:

"Mr. President, you say claims of climate change are all lies. Do you genuinely believe that? Or is the truth that you do accept it is happening, see commercial advantages in it, and so you allege it is a lie because you do not want it slowed or stopped?"

@ArishMell I emphatically am certain Trump believes it's a hoax. 2010 was when he was a Democrat! So was 2012.

No Democrat, that wants to run for president, would let that out! Especially if he believed that he could "take advantage of it". That would be political suicide. Just by the economics of it. He would change parties long before that. And why Trump was forced to change parties to run for president LATER.

Please remember that was as well the time Trump filed for bankruptcies. All through those years.

@DeWayfarer Ah - that's what I was unsure about - whether Trump genuinely believes the climate isn't changinbg - or at least not by human action. I was suspicious because he is using it so heavily for political reasons.

Hard to see Trump having much support from either side if he changed parties now.

How has he managed to be so unsuccessful in business? One business failure, maybe two, is fairly common but it must be very rare to run up a string of bankruptcies.

@DeWayfarer He won't get away with it for ever....

@ArishMell He Is becoming senile. 🫤

@DeWayfarer Yes - I've seen that mentioned by quite a few people on here. I'm not a doctor and can't judge his health but he certainly seems less rational and consistent, and more aggressive, than I remember from his first term as President.