https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/09/trump-energy-iea-paris-00500387
"President Donald Trump’s campaign to shake up international institutions has a
new aim: upending the leadership of a Paris-based agency whose data and
research help shape global energy policy.
The 32-country International Energy Agency has increasingly rankled Republicans
in Washington by producing analyses that point to a waning future for fossil
fuels and a need to embrace wind and solar power. Now the Trump administration
is demanding that the agency replace its No. 2 leader with someone more aligned
with the president’s policies, multiple energy industry insiders and former
U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation told
POLITICO’s
E&E News.
The IEA’s second-ranking position has traditionally been filled by an American.
Its current second-in-command, retired career State Department diplomat Mary
Warlick, has served in the role since 2021.
The new pressure from Washington follows months of Trump’s efforts to bend
global power centers to his will, including through his trade wars, his demands
for higher defense spending by NATO members and his withdrawals from bodies
such as UNESCO and the World Health Organization. It also follows months of
public complaints about the IEA from top Trump administration officials, most
notably Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who has vowed to make changes at the
body or end U.S. support.
Some Republicans say the IEA has discouraged investment in fossil fuels by
publishing analyses that show near-term peaks in global demand for oil and gas.
“The product that the IEA produces is not generally accepted by everybody. It’s
just not,” said Mark Menezes, who served as deputy Energy secretary during
Trump’s first term. “And the political context has changed.”"
The IEA has already famously
underestimated the rapid growth of renewables,
especially solar, every single year for decades. Forcing them to imagine a
future where nothing changes and everyone continues paying for fossil fuels
forever is completely detached from reality.
Fossil fuels have reached their peak and will now start to reduce rather than
increase sales. This directly threatens investment into the companies and the
existing value of their shares. They desperately want to hold back the tide as
long as they can to keep the gravy train rolling and extract as much as they
can before the crash.
Petrostates are notorious for political corruption, and the current US
administration is now demonstrating that they have given up all pretense of any
concern for the poor, other peoples of the world or the future. They are now
joining forces with the worst petrostates including Russia and Saudia Arabia in
stealing from the rest of us.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
