The US and the Western world find themselves in a perfect storm, largely of their own making.
It’s a Hobson’s choice: Pay Russian President Vladimir Putin billions for $100+ barrels of oil along with Russian natural gas or watch a cold winter squeeze Europe further while the United States manages zooming gasoline prices in the US. This week, on a single day, the US bought 22 million barrels of Russian oil and the average price for gas in Californian surpassed $5 a gallon.
Wildly, some pundits now suggest that a new source of oil could be on the world market in a matter of days to fix it all. All the US must do is sign on the dotted line with Iran!
Reportedly, the said-to-be-imminent Iran nuclear agreement will greenlight not green energy, but billions in previously sanctioned oil revenue for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ensuring Tehran can soon affix nukes to its long-range ballistic missiles to threaten Israel and the entire Gulf region. Iran will have plenty of cash left over to infuse its terrorist lackeys in Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza with the ability to crush hopes for broader peace in the Middle East. If that isn’t good enough, famed CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria actually suggested that the United States could also lift sanctions on Venezuela, for more of that precious blood oil.
This isn’t a drill.
All indications are that the new Iran nuclear deal, brokered on behalf of the US in part by – unbelievably –the Russian deputy foreign minister, will be agreed to in a matter of days. Venezuela, like Russia, is one of Iran’s very few remaining allies.
Could it be that these are the only choices left to the world’s greatest superpower?
It depends on who you ask.
America’s high priest of climate change, John Kerry, apparently believes that saving the planet trumps any other crisis – including the destruction of the independent nation of Ukraine.
It seems that President Biden agrees.
You see, there is one policy judiciously left off the table: no return to former President Donald Trump’s policies which made the United States energy independent and a net exporter to its friends and allies.
From day one, President Biden’s White House has embraced a slash-and-burn approach to transitioning the United States economy from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
It was curious to begin with, but it is becoming deadly.
The economic consequences are painfully obvious – skyrocketing oil prices, and the loss of thousands of jobs in the energy sector, for instance – but most people have not fully considered the national security implications of the administration’s policy.
Unfortunately, Americans are now learning the hard way as they watch Ukraine burn.
Why, for instance, did Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen say this week that the United States has chosen to “shield Russia’s energy sector from sanctions” despite the widespread belief that preemptively sanctioning the energy sector may have been the only thing which could have disincentivized Putin from invading Ukraine?
Why must the US opt for Putin’s, Maduro’s or the Ayatollah’s oil? Why turn a blind eye to the fact that solar panels purchased from China were produced by Uyghur slave labor – all in the name of a holy cause?
It’s because President Biden’s green climate Messianists believe these are necessary evils in order to create an environmentally pristine world for generations to come.
The only problem is that we may not be here to enjoy it if they continue on this path.
If we don’t catch up, Ukraine may just be the opening act.
Just keep your eyes on Iran.
There was – and may still be – a way out of the perfect storm of the Russian/Venezuela/Iran/China energy trap: unleash American energy; develop all our energy potential including, oil, natural gas, solar, wind, and hydrogen; and leverage our collective energy clout to place the world’s bullies in a corner.
Reportedly the American administration seems now to be willing to remove sanctions on many known terrorists, including the infamous Iranian masterminds behind the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, partly so that Iran’s oil can relieve the pressure on global energy prices.
Because of our unwillingness to see American energy as a blessing for democracy, the US may attempt to replace Russian oil with Iranian oil. We will trade in one of the world’s great human rights violators for an even more vicious oil partner.
What types of terrorism and Middle East chaos will Iran reap when their coffers are flush with American dollars?
The bottom line is that we are being taught a brutal lesson on the backs of innocent Ukrainians.
An American economy which cannot produce sufficient energy for itself, and to assist its democratic allies when needed, will result in a more dangerous and a less prosperous world, quickly.
So, will President Biden reverse course and turn on the taps?
Tragically, it appears the US administration isn’t interested. Days ago, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm seemed to revel in the effect of the Ukrainian crisis on energy. “We’re working through an energy transition,” Granholm said. “The reality is we have to take some time to get off of oil and gas.”
As religious leaders, we find it particularly dubious that the administration clothes its energy policies in moral platitudes, justifying virtually every decision as part of a grand scheme to save the planet.
But their burn-the-house-down approach to addressing legitimate environmental challenges is starting to cost real lives, now. In this case, the most significant military incursion in Europe since World War II.
As the world watches, one million new refugees emerge in a week; Europe’s largest nuclear power plant catches on fire; whole apartment complexes are turned to rubble; countless civilians are indiscriminately killed; and bombs cause damage to the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial and Russian Orthodox churches. It is time for our political elite to show some humility.
It isn’t that environmental issues aren’t important. They are. It’s just that caring for our planet has to begin with securing the safety of the people living on it now.