Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) cheered the news that oil futures plunged below zero on Monday as demand due to the coronavirus pandemic continued to plummet.
📊 What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions? #EnergyDebate — Shell (@Shell) November 2, 2020 Coming from the world’s third-largest company, which knew as early as 1988 that its extraction of oil and gas was linked to the heating of the planet, the question was seen by Ocasio-Cortez and other critics as a gross deflection of Shell’s own responsibility. Ocasio-Cortez, of course, has big plans to end all fossil fuel use in the country and convert it all to the pipe dream of green energy. She reads the crash of the oil industry as the wake up call.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “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*
Ocasio-Cortez wrote her statement while promoting a tweet that stated: “Oil prices now at ‘negative values,’ meaning oil producers have to pay people to take it off their hands and store it because when demand plunges (like now), that is less expensive for them than building more storage and/or shutting wells down.”
Rep. @AOC after seeing news that means American workers will lose their jobs: 'You absolutely love to see it.' pic.twitter.com/WcHb4fI220
— Matt Wolking (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@MattWolking) April 20, 2020
There was immediate backlash online as critics said that Ocasio-Cortez was “cheering” American job losses due to the pandemic.
Political commentator Stephen Miller mocked those who have claimed that no one is cheering the pandemic, sarcastically writing: “No one is cheering this pandemic.”
Miller later added: “You only need thousands of people dead and millions of people unemployed to enact your vision, which is basically what we’ve been saying all along.”
No one is cheering this pandemic. https://t.co/J6zb7kATJ0
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 20, 2020
Another political commentator from the Heritage Foundation wrote: “Member of Congress actively cheering massive job losses and economic misery for thousands of her fellow citizens:”
Member of Congress actively cheering massive job losses and economic misery for thousands of her fellow citizens: https://t.co/IL08w2qDfw
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) April 20, 2020
Ocasio-cortez Net Worth
America First Spokesman Steve Cortes responded: “I look forward to challenging leftists – from AOC to Joe Biden to Andrew Cuomo – to explain their anti-Energy radicalism to voters, especially in places like western PA”
I look forward to challenging leftists – from AOC to Joe Biden to Andrew Cuomo – to explain their anti-Energy radicalism to voters, especially in places like western PA… https://t.co/ar6IO51vuU
Ocasio Cortez Biden Oil
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) April 20, 2020
Jason Howerton tweeted: “AOC deleted the tweet. Never forget. Radicals want revolution and they don’t care what kind of unthinkable hell all of us would have to go through to get there.”
AOC deleted the tweet.
Never forget. Radicals want revolution and they don't care what kind of unthinkable hell all of us would have to go through to get there. pic.twitter.com/eEKLihpskr
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) April 20, 2020
Daily Caller investigative reporter Chuck Ross wrote: “My cousin’s husband was laid off from his oil field job in Western Texas even before today’s downturn. They have 3 kids. She has cancer for the second time in her life, prognosis unclear. So no, you don’t ‘absolutely love to see it.'”
RNC Rapid Response Director Steve Guest wrote: “Screen shots live forever. Here’s a screen grab of @AOC cheering on job losses. Disgusting.”
Screen shots live forever.
Ocasio Cortez Oil Tweet
Here's a screen grab of @AOC cheering on job losses.
Disgusting. https://t.co/5WTyQs4x4xpic.twitter.com/MuIPpwes6h
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 20, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez offered no apology for her remarks and instead kept going, tweeting: “Now is the time to create millions of good jobs building out the infrastructure and clean energy necessary to save our planet for future generations. For our economy, our planet, and our future, we need a #GreenNewDeal.”
Just last week, the Houston Chronicle reported:
Oil and gas companies announced plans to cut more than 6,400 jobs on a grim day for the industry that saw the price of crude oil settle below $20 for the first time since 2001 and the amount of petroleum in U.S. storage rise by nearly 20 million barrels.
The most job losses came at Weatherford International, the Houston-based oil-field service company, which said Wednesday that it plans to cut 25 percent of its global workforce. A breakdown of where the layoffs will take place was not immediately available but the company had said it employed about 24,000 workers at the beginning of the year — meaning it will shed 6,000 jobs.
Last year, Ocasio-Cortez was one of the people who sabotaged a deal where Amazon would have brought tens of thousands of new jobs to her district and billions of dollars of economic activity.
“Thirty-eight percent of voters faulted the congresswoman for the deal’s demise, identifying her as a ‘villain,'” The New York Times reported. “In the New York City suburbs, 50 percent of voters blamed Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Upstate, the number was 40 percent; in the five boroughs, it was 29 percent.”
This is a developing news story, refresh the page for updates.