Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez initially celebrated the oil market crash in a now deleted tweet. On a day in which oil prices went negative for the first time in history, AOC had this to say: “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 *cough*” she said in a now deleted tweet.
The elation from AOC in this tweet comes as fuel market turmoil threatens an already strained global economy. “The oil price collapse is a danger for the global economy,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Tuesday. He went on to say that African countries highly dependent on the oil industry were at increased risk. There are also fears that the oil crisis could provide the tipping point for regional struggles in the Middle East, particularly in regards to countries like Iran with little economic mobility outside the oil industry.
International woes aside, pandemic induced drop in oil demand is sure to cause economic havoc in the United States. An analysis from Rystad Energy projects the shale industry seeing cuts as deep as 30%, with more than 1 million jobs in the oil industry at large projected to be lost. These projections are based on data drawn from a 2014 industry downturn. “As much as a 32% cut in workforce is likely to be realized in this sector from now until December 2020,” they said of the shale industry.
Cuts in the fuel sector are sure to hit working class families hard in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado and Texas, among other states. As a result, this deleted tweet from AOC has come under fire.