HORMUZ CHOKE POINT PUTS THE ROTTEN FRUITS OF ‘GREEN’ POLICIES ON FULL DISPLAY

The latest pain comes from the Iran conflict. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint for one-fifth (about 20 million barrels a day) of global oil — triggered the largest supply shock in modern history. Brent crude spiked above $110 a barrel in March. Europe felt it the hardest. 

Why? Because Europe refuses to harvest its own abundant fossil fuels. Years of green mandates shut down domestic drilling, banned new exploration, and forced reliance on imported LNG and refined products from unstable regions. 

When Hormuz slammed shut, there was no domestic buffer. Prices soared, stations ran dry, and the bill landed squarely on households already crushed by the highest energy costs in the developed world, double those of the United States.

Now, Irish farmers and truckers have had enough. Since April 7, they have blockaded motorways, ports, and Dublin’s O’Connell Street with tractors and lorries. Over a third of fuel stations are empty. Their demand is simple: Suspend the carbon tax, cap pump prices, and stop the planned hikes.

These are not fringe radicals; they are the men and women who feed the country and move its goods. They know what the politicians refuse to admit: Every extra cent on diesel is a direct hit on their margins and families, and it adds to the cost of everything on supermarket shelves. And the worst is yet to come. The carbon tax is scheduled to keep rising every year for the next five years.

Contrast that with the United States. Thanks to America First energy policies, the U.S. drills, produces, and exports. No federal carbon tax. Many blue states have something similar to a carbon tax; they call it either cap-and-trade, cap-and-invest, or carbon pricing. Thankfully, we have no punishing net-zero timeline. The result is energy independence and energy prices roughly half of Europe’s. 

When global shocks hit, U.S. domestic supply softens the blow. U.S. manufacturers, truckers, and farmers do not face the same threat of expensive energy. Our economy grows because energy production and use are treated as assets, not climate sins.

Europe’s leaders sold net-zero as the path to cheaper, cleaner prosperity. The opposite happened. Electricity prices in Germany and the United Kingdom have more than doubled in real terms since the green push began. Heavy industry is fleeing to places with cheaper power. 

Households in rural Ireland heat their homes with kerosene that now carries the same carbon penalty as road diesel. The promise of “affordable green energy” was always a mirage: Wind and solar require massive subsidies, backup gas plants, expensive transmission wires, and imported critical minerals. The only thing that actually fell was Europe’s energy security, economic activity, and its citizens’ purchasing power.

California has followed Europe’s folly. California imports 60% of its oil instead of producing it in-state. Because of “green” ideology, it chose to import oil rather than have that economic activity, above-average-paying jobs, and tax revenue stay in the state. 

Americans should count our blessings every time we pass a gas station. The U.S. has abundant resources, rational policy, and the freedom to use them. Europe chose virtue-signaling over reality and is now paying the price in higher costs, empty stations, and angry farmers and truckers blocking the roads. 

RECLAIMING AFFORDABILITY: STATE-LEVEL GREEN NEW DEALS INVITE HIGHER ENERGY BILLS

Europe’s experiment is failing in plain sight. The U.S. should not import Europe’s folly and weaknesses. Reject carbon taxes, carbon pricing, cap-and-trade, and the net-zero fantasy. The net-zero nightmare does exactly the opposite of the propaganda — it is expensive.

The U.S. needs to keep its energy strong, affordable, and independent. The alternative is already playing out across the Atlantic — and it is ugly.

Frank Lasee is president of Truth in Energy and Climate.