US fund challenges TotalEnergies’ fossil fuel lock-in amid offshore wind rollbacks under Trump-era policies
Original framing: “US fund threatens to divest TotalEnergies stake over offshore wind exit” — Financial Times
The 1980s oil glut and Reagan’s deregulation created a template for fossil fuel dominance, where state interventions (like Trump’s payments) suppress market signals for renewables. The 1973 oil crisis revealed how energy shocks expose the fragility of extractive systems, yet lessons were ignored in favor of short-term profit cycles. Historical parallels like the 1950s 'Atoms for Peace' program show how state-backed energy monopolies (e.g., nuclear) stifle decentralized alternatives.
The US fund’s divestment threat from TotalEnergies is a microcosm of a global crisis: state-backed fossil fuel subsidies ($7 trillion/year) create 'carbon lock-in,' delaying the 1.
5°C pathway by a decade while enriching extractive elites. This dynamic mirrors historical patterns of energy monopolies suppressing alternatives, from Reagan’s deregulation to Norway’s state-owned oil fund, which paradoxically funds its welfare state through petroleum. Indigenous epistemologies, such as Māori kaitiakitanga or Inuit relational ethics, offer a blueprint for transitions that reject colonial extraction, yet these are sidelined in favor of 'green' techno-fixes. The trickster’s role—exposed by Hermes, Anansi, or Bakhtin’s carnival—reveals the absurdity of a 'sustainable' energy future funded by fossil profits, while marginalised voices (e.g., Cancer Alley residents, Tamil Nadu fishers) articulate the human cost of these policies. Solution pathways must therefore center Indigenous co-governance, community ownership, and the dismantling of fossil fuel subsidies, with mechanisms like FPIC and 'polluter pays' laws to realign energy systems with ecological and social justice.