Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) on Monday deleted a tweet in which she celebrated the oil crash, which is likely to lead to massive loss of jobs in America.
A futures contract for US crude dropped a whopping 100% on Monday as demand for oil dipped to an all-time-low amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Ocasio-Cortez immediately took to social media to celebrate the news, stating, “You absolutely love to see it.”
“This along with record low interest rates means it’s the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet.”
She ended her tweet with “*cough*,” implying that the devastating price crash vindicated her previous environmental activism.
Shortly after publishing the tweet, a panic-stricken AOC deleted the post after getting called out for celebrating American job losses while calling for a Communist revolution. She replaced the tweet with a more somber one, arguing it was a “snapshot” of a “turning point” for the climate change movement.
“Fossil fuels are in long-term structural decline. This along w/ low interest rates means it‘s the right time to create millions of jobs transitioning to renewable and clean energy,” AOC wrote. “A key opportunity.”
Breitbart.com reports: Several conservative reporters critized Ocasio-Cortez’s message and shared screenshots of it around social media.
“After deleting that tweet, I would love to see Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who loves to remind people she has an econ degree, explain contango and oil contracts to the rest of us who don’t see the logic in what she’s suggesting,” asked RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway.
Oil futures plunged below zero on Monday, the latest never-before-seen number to come out of the economic coma caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Stocks and Treasury yields also dropped on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 down 1.8%, but the market’s most dramatic action by far was in oil, where the cost to have a barrel of U.S. crude delivered in May plummeted to negative $37.63. It was at roughly $60 at the start of the year.
Traders are still paying $20.43 for a barrel of U.S. oil to be delivered in June, which analysts consider to be closer to the “true” price of oil. Crude to be delivered next month, meanwhile, is running up against a stark problem: traders are running out of places to keep it, with storage tanks close to full amid a collapse in demand as factories, automobiles and airplanes sit idled around the world.
Tanks at a key energy hub in Oklahoma could hit their limits within three weeks, according to Chris Midgley, head of analytics at S&P Global Platts. Because of that, traders are willing to pay others to take that oil for delivery in May off their hands, so long as they also take the burden of figuring out where to keep it.