Oil & Gas Editorial: Trump Victorious - Crude Awakening Or Fanfare For The Common Manipulator?
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Last week, after the most contentious and second most costly political campaign of all time, US Republican candidate, Donald Trump, stormed to the White House.
Purple swing states lost their mauve hue and regressed to crimson as the wave of discontent that swept the British off their feet during the European Union referendum in June, washed over their Anglophonic cousins to the point of inundation.
A pattern is emerging in Western pluralistic democracies: disaffection with the status quo and the usually impervious political classes is manifesting in support for candidates on the margins of the mechanics of government. Those who have disassociated from the machine of state have a greater chance of success in the eyes of the people that politics has maligned or forgotten.
In French the word for "vote" is the same as the word for "voice": a vote for Trump or Brexit was a shriek of defiance heard by the world. Will France herself be the next nation to scream at the polls in May 2017?
But how much change is due, and what does change even look like? As we covered last week, the Clinton versus Trump face-off was a struggle between oligarch and plutocrat. This time, Wall Street beat City Hall to the Oval Office. Will this sound the Fanfare for the Common Man? I would be surprised if the brass and percussion echoed for the average American.
What does a Trump presidency mean for energy in the USA? Our analysis of Trump quotes shows a man very much in favour of the growing the hydrocarbons sector in conventional and unconventional arenas. His “America First Energy Plan" even includes the banning crude imports from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Whether this will be put into practice or is even practicable remains to be seen. The man behind the desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue promises everything from a Great Wall to a new era of prosperity from sea to shining sea. Over the next 48 months we will get to see what parts of the rhetoric become reality.
