The national average gas price has risen to $4.50 a gallon, with California reaching $6.11 average per gallon. However, oil prices plunged yesterday amid reports that the war with Iran may end soon.
While the war has affected American’s pocketbooks, some commentators were more worried about the international implications. While the US will recover, other countries, particularly Asian allies, are more reliant on outside energy and may turn to China’s renewable energy sources and Russian oil. The US has worked hard to sanction Russian oil amid the Ukraine war and is now facing the question of whether it must undo some of those sanctions to ease the cost of energy.
Those on the right were more concerned about increasing taxes on energy and increasing dependence on China through renewable energy sources. The left saw renewable energy as the solution that would avoid high oil prices and blamed President Trump’s recklessness for the energy conundrum now facing the US.
The New York Times Opinion’s (Left) featured a guest essay arguing, “In just two months, the United States has transformed from a bulwark of the international energy system into its biggest source of insecurity. And while America may emerge relatively unscathed from the energy crisis it started by going to war with Iran, the long-term implications for its oil-based economy could be profoundly destabilizing…More countries will pursue alternatives, including clean energy technologies where China has a decisive edge. The United States could see its export market diminish as demand for oil and gas slows, threatening a trillion-dollar domestic industry and the thousands of jobs it provides. American consumers could also be stuck with polluting fuels prone to price spikes while the rest of the world moves on.”
A piece in the Daily Signal (Right) read, “Yet even as missiles fly and shipping lanes tighten, the green energy chorus is back at the microphone, insisting this is finally the moment the world abandons fossil fuels for wind turbines and solar panels…We would be trading American energy independence for Chinese energy dependency and calling it a climate victory. That is hardly a transition. It is rather a surrender, just with better branding.”
A writer in Al Jazeera (Lean Left) said, “These crises are moments of extreme injustice. Not only are people paying a price for fossil fuel use through the immediate climate impacts, but they are now suffering through increasingly frequent price crises where meals are skipped, jobs are lost, and lights are turned off. This public dip in conditions and cost of living runs parallel to an upwards swing for fossil fuel companies’ blood profits. The least governments can do at this moment is impose a windfall tax on energy companies and use the proceeds to cushion the blow to households and fund an energy transition.”
In The Daily Caller (Right) a columnist wrote, “Even as U.S. gasoline prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security. Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences. Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed on April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3–$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and ‘green’ levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising over half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.”
