Iran war underscores risks of Trump's relentless focus on oil

When U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office last year, he launched a crusade to shift the country away from renewable energy, drastically undoing the climate-friendly policies of his Democratic predecessor to focus instead on oil and other fossil fuels as the answer to his goal of American energy dominance.

But the war in Iran is underscoring the risks of that approach.

As crude oil prices rise above US$100 a barrel and gasoline prices surge toward $4 a gallon, the Republican president’s strategy of blocking clean energy such as wind and solar power has left Americans with fewer alternative energy sources and thus more vulnerable to supply shocks caused by the war, experts say. The Strait of Hormuz, a key access point for the global oil market, remains effectively blocked as Iran targets traffic through it.

“The biggest short-term losers of the war will be U.S. consumers of oil and gas, as energy prices rise,” said Peter Gleick, a climate scientist and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on global water sustainability.

“It turns out fossil fuels have their own supply risks, and the administration has no answers,” added Tyson Slocum, energy director at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.

Trump promised during his campaign to cut energy bills in half but has presided over spikes in electric bills as demand from data centers soars, Slocum said. “Now we are seeing higher gas prices, and nobody knows where it’s going,” he said.