The War in Iran Makes a Powerful Argument for Energy Independence
By Frank Dalene
As the war in Iran drags on, oil prices are skyrocketing. As The Wall Street Journal reports, “The escalating conflict in the Middle East is delivering a sharper blow to global oil markets than the combined impact of the twin oil shocks of the 1970s, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said. (…) ‘At that time in each crisis, the world lost about 5 million barrels per day,’ Birol said. ‘Today we lost 11 million barrels per day so more than two major oil shocks put together.’”
According to experts, it’s possible we could see oil prices as high as $200 a barrel in 2026. This would be catastrophic if it comes to pass. As The Wall Street Journal reports, “Energy producers are scrambling to figure out how high prices can go before buyers start cutting back, a phenomenon called demand destruction. (…) Americans might start taking the bus, working from home or rethinking their summer vacations. Manufacturers could slow down rather than operate uneconomically.” And Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated, “The net of the oil shock will still be some downward pressure on spending and employment and upward pressure on inflation.” The energy crisis has caused the stock market to drop throughout the past month, with all three major indexes falling for four straight weeks in a row.
Already, “Governments around the world are pressuring consumers to reduce energy use in one of the broadest efforts to alter fuel-consumption habits since the 1970s, as the Iran war drives oil-and-gas prices sharply higher. The changes are being rolled out as a mix of voluntary acts, soft restrictions and incentives to cut demand. But the policies are multiplying and growing more constraining as the crisis continues.”
I was thinking about all of this on a recent weekend, as my wife and I traveled back and forth in our Silverado EV to Nassau County Aquatic Center to watch our granddaughter compete in the New York State YMCA Swim Championship. As I was driving, I thought about how now that we are retired, we don’t have to worry about the sky-high price of gas. Our solar panels are charging our EV for free. In fact, as I talked about in a recent article, now that my solar panels are paid off as we stated in a prior article, I will have free energy for the next 24 to 34 years.
In recent articles, I’ve written about the financial benefits of adopting renewable energy. Those benefits become even greater as the costs of fossil fuel increases—and especially as the volatility of fossil fuel prices causes chaos in the stock markets, increasing the impact of overall costs of fossil fuels.
I’m not the only one to have this realization. A Bay Area couple, the Rebacks, were recently interviewed by The Wall Street Journal for an article about how Americans are navigating higher energy costs. The Rebecks “had an at-home EV charger installed recently for roughly $2,000, which they had planned even before the recent rise in gas prices. A year ago, they had decided to spend around $50,000 to install rooftop solar after he said their combined monthly natural gas and electric bill hit nearly $800. The EV charger will be powered by the solar panels. Now, their electric bills are close to $0 except in the winter when it is less sunny. ‘Honestly, it’s left us wondering why everyone is not doing it,’ Reback said, adding that he calculated the investment would pay for itself in under six years.”
Energy independence gave my wife and I the sense of freedom to be there to support our granddaughter and the Swim Team. The East Hampton Hurricane Swim Team won the State Championship, and we were so happy we didn’t miss it. But energy independence can go so far beyond the individual level. True energy independence should be on a national level—meaning a country’s ability to produce multiple types of energy, including energy storage to have energy available to its people even if one or more types of energy becomes unavailable, thereby increasing the country’s energy resilience. The energy crisis precipitated by the war in Iran and its effects on Americans everyday lives proves that energy independence is not just a political concept, but a very real solution to very real problems that affect us all.
Frank Dalene, an Amazon Best Selling Author in Green Business & Environmental Economics titled, Decarbonize The World: Solving The Climate Crisis While Increasing Profits In Your Business, and Founder of the Hamptons Green Alliance, a 501(c)(3) Public Charity.
Learn more at frankdalene.com and hamptonsgreenalliance.org.
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