Drill, Baby, Geopolitics: Now It’s a Matter of National Security | The American Spectator

Oil prices have rocketed up to a high of $112 per barrel amid the ongoing war in Iran, though not as high as the spikes under President Biden, which saw Brent crude hit $127 in March of 2022. This again shows that U.S. energy independence is essential to national security and stability.

I’m not going to completely defend President Trump’s actions in Iran. I believe one can reasonably make arguments for or against the attack, and I have intelligent friends who fall on both sides of the debate. What I can do is provide some insight as to how America can harden itself for the future. So, dealing with things as they are, and not how we wish they were, why on Earth are we so tied to Middle East oil? Don’t we have enough here?

We do have “enough,” especially when Canada factors into the equation (and, perhaps, Venezuela). But still, it is genuinely in our interest to maintain peace in the Middle East. (RELATED: Venezuelan Oil May Not Come Easy)

Putting it simply without getting into the history: The U.S. dollar is the premier currency in which oil is traded all around the world, but particularly in the Middle East. Thus, stability in the region keeps the dollar in demand. We want the dollar to be in demand globally because when countries like Saudi Arabia receive dollars for their oil, they often reinvest those dollars into U.S. Treasury bonds and other markets that go towards funding some of the U.S. federal deficit.

I am going to assume that the petrodollar system will not change any time soon, which may upset some readers. But this is the most likely reality for the near future. (RELATED: The Price of Gas and the November Elections)

With that being the case, how can we protect Americans from future energy shocks when the Middle East is in turmoil, and the Strait of Hormuz is closed? (RELATED: Five Quick Things: Hormuz)

Some suggest that green energy, specifically wind and solar, is the solution. On the surface, if you know nothing at all about wind and solar except that they make electricity and appear to be “oil-free,” this might sound like a good idea.

But if you’re worried about being dependent on hostile, untrustworthy foreign powers for our energy, further handcuffing us to the largest producer of green tech, China, will not help America over the long term. China funds environmental activist groups here in the United States to wage war on fossil fuels while promoting wind and solar subsidies.

China refines around 91 percent of all rare earth minerals, and nearly all the graphite vital for battery production. The Chinese Communist Party dominates the solar panel industry and produces nearly all the magnets necessary for electric cars and wind turbines.

Green energy means Chinese prosperity.

Nuclear power is genuinely great to add to the grid, particularly as what we call baseload power. We should expand America’s nuclear power footprint. However, it is not a magic bullet. Most nuclear power cannot react to fluctuations in short-term power demand as nimbly as natural gas or coal, though this may change with new technology. The drumbeat I constantly hear is: “Do not plan infrastructure today based on technology that does not exist and can’t be deployed at economic scale yet.”

This is the trap we find ourselves in with the supposed battery revolution that is perpetually “just around the corner.”

President Trump has already expressed support for some practical solutions: we need to cut a lot of red tape in energy and manufacturing industries, build out our refinery and domestic mining capacity, and carefully decouple from China in vital industries. (RELATED: Trump’s Mineral Revolution Secures Our National Sovereignty)

Right now, domestic oil production is limited by refining, transportation, and export bottlenecks. The United States cannot extract giant amounts of oil if there is nowhere to send it. For the first time in 50 years, a new refinery is being built on American soil due to the Trump administration’s energy dominance philosophy. This is a great step in the right direction, but it’s just a step. These efforts need to be made permanent, or a future administration could slam the brakes on Trump’s progress. (RELATED: Electricity Affordability — Trump’s Achilles’ Heel?)

Oil and natural gas are vital to the world, not just for energy but for all plastics, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, dyes, treated materials, and other petrochemical products. Americans use things made from the byproducts of oil refining every hour of every day. There is no getting away from the fact that modern society depends on fossil fuels.

In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith said it was vitally important that countries protect domestic industries that are essential to national defense. Energy, I would argue, falls under this category.

The Trump administration needs support for these aims because access to affordable and reliable energy is paramount to U.S. interests for the foreseeable future.

Linnea Lueken ([email protected]) is a research fellow with the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute. X: @LinneaLueken