Oil, not cocaine, is Venezuela’s most dangerous drug

William S. Becker

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So, the U.S. has seized Venezuela’s oil reserves. It looks like President Trump’s biggest deal ever — a hostile takeover. But should we celebrate it? Trump frames the takeover as an enormous opportunity for America’s oil companies, the American people and Venezuelans. In reality, he has doubled down on a dead-end energy policy fraught with profound and dangerous problems.

First, not all oil is black gold, and not all oil fields are bonanzas. Venezuela’s reserves are the world’s largest, but also some of the dirtiest. Their petroleum is tar-like and full of sulfur. It’s more difficult and expensive to extract and refine. Some would be processed on the U.S. Gulf Coast, where refineries are equipped to handle heavy oil. But oil refining is the 10th most toxic industry in the U.S. Refineries emit 188 types of harmful pollutants, some linked with cancer, pulmonary and heart diseases, and neurological, reproductive, developmental and immunological damage. Part of the Coast is already known as a sacrifice area called “cancer alley.”