4 ms·
Why did we sell it instead of lease? This seems like something that should be in public hands.
by bix6 7mo ago
Why did we sell it instead of lease? This seems like something that should be in public hands.
- cagenut 7mo agosorry thats too far left wing an opinion in america today
- infogulch 7mo agoThe sale was completed in 2024.
- actionfromafar 7mo agoI feel that as soon as the existential threat easened with the splintering of the Soviet Union, the US started doing some self-harming libertarian flavored shit to itself. In the 1980s, I assume getting rid of the "strategic reserve" of anything would have met more pushback, because of primal fear overriding greed.
- noah_buddy 7mo agoYes, Reagan was noted for his desire to avoid privatization of anything. /s Kidding aside, the US has had libertarian pipe dreams for the better part of its history. The aberration was the New Deal period up until the mid 60s.
- scythe 7mo ago> We are going to do a terrible thing to you — we are going to deprive you of an enemy. – Georgi Arbatov, Soviet political scientist, 1988
- trollbridge 7mo agoWasn’t the original purpose of the strategic helium reserve to build fleets of zeppelins?
- phr4ts 7mo agoFor those who don't understand, Biden sold the Helium not Trump - he took office on Jan 20, 2025.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- baldeagle 7mo ago"Current law (cira 2013) requires BLM to sell off the crude helium remaining in the Federal Helium Reserve in order to repay the U.S. Treasury the $1.3 billion debt incurred creating it. This debt will be repaid this fiscal year and that, as a consequence, the helium program will terminate at the end of the current fiscal year (October 1, 2013), absent Congressional action. Currently, the Federal Helium Reserve supplies roughly 40% of domestic and 30% of global helium demand. Loss of access to the Federal Helium Reserve would result in significant disruptions to a large number of critical U.S. industries." https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/494b2f9e-c8f5-4a44-962d-de4e83397d6b https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/494b2f9e-c8f5-4... Sounds like Obama kept the gas taps flowing, instead of locking it up because authorization to sell it had expired. Here is the whole record: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/527/all-actions https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/527/...
- 4ggr0 7mo ago> too far left wing > biden uhm...
- edgyquant 7mo agoHis admin was by far the most left wing in history, only the actual far left think otherwise
- ImPostingOnHN 7mo agoPlease don't call everyone names for not agreeing with you. There are billions of people in the world, and you are one, and you have your one set of opinions out of billions. Nobody endowed you or your opinions with any sort of infallibility or superiority over others.
- piva00 7mo agoIdeological idiocy, the dismantling of anything public turning into private hands is ideologically pure for libertarian-inclined folks, no matter how strategically stupid it might be.
- hn_acc1 7mo agoThis. 1000x this.
- fc417fc802 7mo agoSeems more directly capitalist than libertarian to me.
- piva00 7mo agoNeoliberal capitalism is founded on absorbing parts of libertarian thinking. The "capitalism" moniker of today used by ideologues is coupled to the meaning of it given by neoliberals. It's been coopted, not necessarily capitalism means "everything should be private", the current flavour of capitalist ideology wants that but other versions of capitalism don't put that as a foundational Ideological tenet.
- forgetfreeman 7mo agocrypto-libertarian "government bad" ideology is one hell of a drug.
- dnautics 7mo agowell it was signed into law by obama, so there's that.
- stvltvs 7mo agoI like the guy, but he was GOP-lite as a president, served corporate interests.
- fc417fc802 7mo agoThe GOP isn't "crypto-libertarian" by any stretch of the imagination. That's probably even more absurd than the people who suggest the GOP is "financially conservative".
- forgetfreeman 7mo agoThe thing there is the GOP was financially conservative a few decades ago and it's like nobody bothered to update the wiki.
- mrguyorama 7mo agoThey'll ride it forever. My dad still insists "Protecting the environment is conservative, look at the EPA made by Nixon" as if there hasn't been clear and deliberate anti-environmental policy since then. After 30 years of empirical reality demonstrating that if you want a government that is responsible with money, you must vote democrat, Donald Trump was still voted in because "He's good for the economy" He is not.
- forgetfreeman 7mo ago
- tzs 7mo agoThe Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (HPA) required it. It passed to House on a voice vote and the Senate by unanimous consent and was signed by President Clinton. After sales paid off the debt that has been incurred from the expansion of scope of the helium program in the 1960 Helium Act, which was one of the main points of the HPA, it was update by the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 (which passed the House 394-1, and the Senate 97-2, and was signed by President Obama).