The Billionaire is pushing for more oil production despite the negative impacts on his business
The United States, like many other countries, is dependent on Russian oil
Increasing the world’s supply of oil will make its value drop, thus reducing Russia’s funding
In a recent Tweet, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, claimed that the United States should increase its oil production immediately in order to deprive Russia from most of its funding.
This can seem an unlikely take from someone who is running a company which is the largest automaker specialised in electric vehicles and also a business dedicated to find and develop sustainable energy sources.
Musk himself recognised that by saying that Tesla would be negatively affected by an increased production of oil and thus cheaper gas prices, but according to the CEO, renewable energy sources could not be scaled up quick enough to replace Russian gas and oil in a short amount of time, adding that “extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures”.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has prompted many countries to impose economic sanctions against the occupying country. The largest source of export revenue for Russia is its fossil fuel industry, which is why it became a target of most of these sanctions.
Canada decided early to ban the importation of oil and gas from Russia and the European Union is in discussion with the United States in order to impose a similar ban.
If most countries stop importing fossil fuels from Russia, prices for gas and oil will drop and the economy of the offending country will be badly hit.
As of now, the prices for gas at the pump are beginning to surpass the levels seen during the economic crisis of 2008-2009 and in some places, all time highs could be seen in the coming weeks if the situation doesn’t improve.
