After the United States’ dramatic raid and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration announced that U.S. oil companies would step into the high-cost, high-risk venture of rebuilding the Venezuelan industry.
But will they? Given Venezuela’s murky political future, few analysts expect a rush to invest the billions needed to pump more oil from the world’s largest reserves.
Marianne explains the history and context of this grab for Venezuelan oil, why American oil companies may eye the situation warily, and how to make sense of Trump’s ambitions.
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Thank you,
Bureau Chief, Washington, D.C.
Marianne Lavelle is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Inside Climate News. She has covered environment, science, law, and business in Washington, D.C. for more than two decades. She has won the Polk Award, the Investigative Editors and Reporters Award, and numerous other honors. Lavelle spent four years as online energy news editor and writer at National Geographic. She spearheaded a project on climate lobbying for the nonprofit journalism organization, the Center for Public Integrity. She also has worked at U.S. News and World Report magazine and The National Law Journal. While there, she led the award-winning 1992 investigation, “Unequal Protection,” on the disparity in environmental law enforcement against polluters in minority and white communities. Lavelle received her master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is a graduate of Villanova University.
