Every Despot Has A Silver Lining

As a child growing up in Miami in the 50s, I remember the first time I heard of a plane hijacking. I then remember the second and the third time some person wanted to commandeer a commercial plane to take them where they wanted to go, often to Cuba. I also remember asking my dad why the airlines didn’t just install secure doors to keep out the hijackers. It was explained that it would be expensive to do this for the thousands of planes and that, most often, they got the planes returned. It was always about the money. Then came 9-11 and suddenly the cost of secure doors seemed paltry.

Ours is a capitalist society so almost everything gets viewed through that lens. If you want to understand something, follow the money. Fast forward to today and the oil crisis that has been brought on by the Iran war. One stupid act and the frailty of our energy ecosystem is at the fore. Suddenly gas prices, food prices, heating bills, cooling bills, and all things that rely on cheap energy cost more.

I say all of this in the context of our MAGA-Republican leader, and his aversion to renewable energy. Like Big Tobacco before it, Big Oil has the money and power to hold this billionaire president’s attention. During his 2024 campaign, Trump asked the fossil fuel industry for $1 billion in campaign funding.

Harold Hamm (Continental Resources), Kelcy Warren (Energy Transfer Partners), Jeffery Hildebrand (Hilcorp Energy), and George Bishop (GeoSouthern Energy) all became mega doners. With cash in hand Donald Trump fast-tracked drilling projects, nullified environmental rules, froze clean energy federal permits for wind and solar projects, terminated billions in green technology grants and tax subsidies, paid energy companies to halt offshore wind developments to reinvest in fossil fuels, froze federal permitting for wind projects, and cancelled the five-year offshore energy leasing schedule. To say that Donald Trump has gone all in for Big Oil would be a gross understatement.

Where’s the silver lining? Obviously, it was not his intent, but Donald Trump may have advanced the cause of renewable energy more than any previous president. The Iran war and subsequent oil shocks have significantly advanced the cause of renewable energy. This one geopolitical crisis has shifted focus to fossil fuel avoidance. Countries are aggressively moving toward electrification and there is a shift in energy paradigms. It is becoming increasingly clear that, once you build a renewable installation you help avoid being bound to the unpredictable and volatile pricing of fossil fuels.

Could this war with Iran have the unintended consequence of promoting a shift to renewable energy? Could this be the 9-11 impetus toward energy independence in the name of national security? This war has shown that, contrary to the claims that America is energy independent, we still live in a world where oil is a global commodity.