The answer to why Donald Trump is ramping up tariffs is protectionism, in particular to protect ExxonMobil and Chevron, who control much of the US market for petroleum. Other countries like Britain own Shell and BP,; Total is owned by France. By discouraging competition with tariffs, ExxonMobil and Chevron will control the US market for oil.
Chevron has a history. This work is from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
“Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation.
Wikipedia Chevron
Chevron is one of two massive companies that control much of the US market. There are 5 large oil companies in the world who control most or all of the market for petroleum production, refining, and selling the gas at gas stations. They are ExxonMobil, the largest, Chevron, BP , Total, and Shell. The Saudi Aramco company is in production of crude and are also a force to be reckoned with.
There was a time not so long ago, in memory, when the gas station was a family business. That began to change in the 80’s and 90’s and now it is rare to find a family or small business owned gas pump. Concentration of ownership by large capitalists removed the small gas stations,
“Since the acquisition of the Pacific Coast Oil Company by Standard Oil, the Standard descendant had traditionally worked closely with Texaco for 100 years, before acquiring Texaco outright in 2001. “
Wikipedia Chevron
There went another large company to Chevron. Texaco used to own gas stations, it is now all Chevron.
“Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985.[1] The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger with Standard Oil of California, Gulf was one of the chief instruments of the Mellon family fortune; both Gulf and Mellon Financial had their headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with Gulf’s headquarters, the Gulf Tower, being Pittsburgh’s tallest building until the completion of the U.S. Steel Tower.
“Gulf Oil Corporation (GOC) ceased to exist as an independent company in 1985, when it merged with Standard Oil of California (SOCAL), with both rebranding as Chevron in the United States. Gulf Canada, Gulf’s main Canadian subsidiary, was sold the same year with retail outlets to Ultramar and Petro-Canada and what became Gulf Canada Resources to Olympia & York.[2][3]
Wikipedia Gulf Oil
“The term “Seven Sisters” refers to seven major, vertically integrated oil companies that dominated the global petroleum industry from the 1940s to the 1970s. They controlled a significant portion of the world’s oil reserves and production. The “Seven Sisters” were: Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP), Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil Company of California (later Chevron), Gulf Oil (later merged with Chevron), Texaco (later merged with Chevron), Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (later Exxon, then ExxonMobil), and Standard Oil Company of New York (later Mobil, then ExxonMobil). “
Google search 7 sisters oil and gas
Basically Chevron and ExxonMobil are the main American petroleum producers, BP, Shell, and Total also dominate the market for oil. These 5 companies also own gas stations, which as mentioned have become owned by a few large companies, rather than small businesses.
“Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess Corporation) is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.[3] It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petroleum in 1968. Leon Hess was CEO from the early 1960s through 1995, after which his son John B Hess succeeded him as chairman and CEO.[4] The company agreed to be acquired by rival oil company Chevron in October 2023.[5]
Wikipedia Hess company
This one has ties to the new fields in South America, in French Guyana. It is now owned by Chevron.
Exxon Mobil is the other American company that competes with Chevron, at least, if you believe that this small group of companies does not exert monopoly control of oil.
“Exxon Mobil Corporation[a] (/ˌɛksɒnˈmoʊbəl/ EK-son-MOH-bəl)[4][5][6] is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston.[7][8]: 1 Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller‘s Standard Oil, the modern company was formed in 1999 following the merger of Exxon and Mobil. It is vertically integrated across the entire oil and gas industry, as well as within its chemicals division, which produces plastic, synthetic rubber, and other chemical products. As the largest U.S.-based oil and gas company, ExxonMobil is the seventh-largest company by revenue in the U.S. and 13th-largest in the world. It is the largest investor-owned oil company in the world.[9][10][11] Approximately 55.56% of the company’s shares are held by institutions, the largest of which as of 2019 were The Vanguard Group (8.15%), BlackRock (6.61%), and State Street Corporation (4.83%).
“The company has been widely criticized and sued, mostly for environmental incidents and its history of climate change denial against the scientific consensus that fossil fuels significantly contribute to global warming.[12] The company is responsible for many oil spills, the largest and most notable of which was the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and itself considered to be one of the world’s worst oil spills in terms of environmental damage.[13][14] The company has been the target of accusations of human rights violations, excessive influence on American foreign policy, and its impact on developing countries.[15]
Wikipedia ExxonMobil
“ExxonMobil traces its roots to Vacuum Oil Company, founded in 1866. Vacuum Oil later was acquired by Standard Oil in 1879, divested from Standard in 1911 with its breakup, and merged by the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), later known as Mobil, in 1931. After the 1911 breakup, Standard Oil continued to exist through its New Jersey subsidiary, sometimes shortened to Jersey Standard, and retained the Standard Oil name in much of the eastern United States. Jersey Standard grew by acquiring Humble Oil in the 1930s and became the dominant oil company on the world stage. The company’s lack of ownership over the Standard Oil name across the United States, however, prompted a name change to unify all of its brands under one name, choosing to name itself Exxon in 1972 over continuing to use the three distinct brands of Esso, Enco, and Humble Oil.[16][17]
“In 1998, the two companies agreed to merge and form ExxonMobil, with the deal closing on November 30, 1999.
Wikipedia ibid
From here we pivot back to protectionism. Oil from Canada is now under a 25% tariff from Trump. This number fluctuates as Trump has repeatedly threatened larger tariffs, and exempted Canadian oil from some tariffs. Trump’s tariffs change from day to day and seem to be more reliant on stock exchange numbers than anything else.
“Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a corporate spin-off in 2011.
“The predecessor company of Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Marathon Petroleum Company LLC, formerly known as Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, was formed by the merger of the refining operations of Marathon Oil and Ashland Inc. in 1998.[11] The merger brought together several descendants of the Standard Oil trust, as Ashland had acquired several smaller Standard spinoffs while Marathon itself was directly owned by Standard Oil. It also brought Marathon’s Speedway and Ashland’s SuperAmerica convenience store chains together and were subsequently merged as “Speedway SuperAmerica”.
“As longtime Marathon rivals Standard Oil of Ohio and Amoco were acquired by British company BP, Marathon Ashland adopted the marketing slogan “An American Company Serving America”, with the slogan being adjourned to Marathon fuel pumps. In 2006, it adopted its current slogan, “Fueling the American Spirit” as the company shifts emphasis on work ethic and the contributions of its employees.[12]
Wikipedia marathon petroleum
Mentioned above is a further ending of small businesses in petroleum, BP (British Petroleum) purchased Amaco. Marathon is still a big gas station owner in companies with American ownership. BP is massive, so is Total and Shell, and can leverage power in the market. Marathon does refining, but it is not nearly as large as ExxonMobil or Chevron. Watch for concentration of ownership to consolidate monopoly control of this company by the bigger competitors…
Place tariffs on the oil from outside the country, and these three companies are in position to have monopoly control of petroleum in America. It is probably not a coincidence that ExxonMobil are climate change skeptics, and Trump is too.
These dinosaurs pump and sell as much oil as possible, with little or no concern about climate change. The goal is to make a profit, not to promote proletarian ecological visions.
Consolidation of ownership occurs after every periodic crisis that comes in the business cycle of what we know of as modern capitalism. The economy starts off after the last crisis. Workers return to their jobs, business starts moving again. The unemployed army of workers who work in the precarious position of unskilled labor are slowly reemployed. Business picks up further, the economy starts to pick up a trot. Employment increases, and profit is created.
Then, there comes overproduction. The speculation on the ability of the market to exchange commodities begins to falter. The crisis comes, and the workers are out on the streets again, unemployed. The machines are no longer working, capital is being destroyed. The crisis is social; there are workers hungry and jaundiced, the machines to provide for them unable to be used due to capitalism.
At this point the large companies buy at ridiculously low prices their former competitors. This process gives rise to massive capitalist companies in control of things like petroleum.
American goals of returning to small businesses in control of, for example, gas stations, is a futile endeavor. The Standard Oil monopoly that preceded ExxonMobil and Chevron’s trust was hit with antitrust in the 20th century. As we can see, monopoly control of petroleum came raging back. There we have Trump, climate change skeptic, supporter of large petroleum industries, also throttling forward gasoline powered engines for cars. Built by Detroit, the large engine petroleum motors propel people where they need to go.
Attempts at building electric cars are now dominated by China, where EV’s cost as little as $10,000. Compare that to an American car, the low end is about $33,000, it is more expensive to buy an American petroleum powered vehicle than a Chinese EV..
Trump to the rescue, with 100% tariffs on Chinese EV”s. Protectionism rears its head, bourgeois gas companies are favored to powering cars with electricity. Combine this with Detroit’s failure to go metric, and it all becomes clear.
Protectionism is required to keep 20th century industry moving. The petroleum powered car has reached its climax. It peaked about 4 years ago, and is now being replaced with cheap electric vehicles, in particular from China. A return to a past era is promoted, “make America great again” sums up this desire.
Small business will not be returning, without a massive crisis. The companies are all in trusts, monopoly or duopoly are the real conditions. These same conditions create a class of people who own little or no real property, they do not own the means of production. They are wage labor, they work part of the day for these large companies and are not paid for their labour. Rather surplus value is created. This surplus value is created any time productive labor is employed. And it increases as industry grows larger, more concentrated.
These old industries were all created to make surplus value, essentially profit. The whole pattern of industry and society was shaped by them. What will their end bring?
Will the companies that were most responsible for capitalism, and its surplus value, disappear? Will surplus value go with these monopolies and trusts being dismantled? It shouldn’t seem so ridiculous that with the failure of the 20th century non metric factories socialism is being discussed. The ecological movement taught us about what forms of repression come with asking the bourgeoisie to clean up their act. How can you trust them to clean up the environment when they sell pollution on the market, as carbon credits?
As we slowly leave the 20th century, society is progressing. Our reliance on petroleum is starting to end. Will we leave what we know of as capitalism, when we are no longer reliant on these forms of industry?
Nicholas Jay Boyes
Milwaukee Wisconsin
American Democratic Republic
Ecological Era 