On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher and Eurasia Group and GZERO Media Founder Ian Bremmer stated that OPEC’s cartel has effectively been ended, which is beneficial, and that the region building pipelines will help undercut Iran’s power.
Bremmer said, “OPEC is over. The Emiratis have pulled out. And that means that they want to produce as much oil as humanly possible because they don’t want that to be a stranded asset. They know it’s not going to be worth so much over time. They want to become a global node as a city-state. That’s — by the way, that’s a monopoly, it’s a cartel over energy, over fossil fuel energy that is not good for anybody. Glad to see them go. The Americans are the largest producer in the world right now. … That’s a big thing that has happened, not because Trump was planning it, but it matters.”
Maher responded, “Yeah, well, also, they’re building pipelines now.” Which Bremmer agreed with.
Maher continued, “Again, he does things in such a clumsy way and sometimes fumbles forward to a good result” and Bremmer agreed.
Maher further stated that the Strait of Hormuz is going to lose strategic importance.
Bremmer further stated that moving away from oil and gas is the most important thing, and “Trump is going to end up going down as the president who has done more for renewable energy than any president in history.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett