Democrats urged to link clean energy to affordability as Iran war hikes up prices | Climate crisis

Democrats should be more vocal in defending clean energy’s affordability and resilience to global shocks, according to some of the party’s leading voices on climate.

While the Iran war shakes economies by increasing oil and gas costs, countries aim to accelerate their transition to cleaner energy. But in the US, Donald Trump has sought to eliminate any possible alternatives to fossil fuels, while opposition Democrats have been reluctant to link the conflict to any action on the climate crisis.

Following the US and Israel’s attack on Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passes, caused an increase in energy costs worldwide. Gasoline prices increased in the USA above $4.10 a gallon nationally with Trump to accept Costs may even be “slightly higher” by November.

Democrats cited this as further evidence of the US president’s broken promises to lower Americans’ cost of living. But there have been few calls for a significant shift away from the volatility of fossil fuels and towards clean energy in response to the conflict, to the disappointment of supporters of action on the climate crisis.

“There is a timely conflict on climate and costs, and Democrats can win as long as we have the courage to truly join this fight,” said Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse, adding that “true energy independence will be achieved by powering our economy with renewable energy whose fuel sources are unlimited, free, and independent of geopolitical events.”

“If we cede the battlefield to the fossil fuel liars and misguided climate silencers of our own party, Democrats will continue to lose the just and winnable fight over the future of clean energy,” Whitehouse said.

climate “shut upThe rhetoric that “politicians and business leaders underestimate or ignore the need to reduce emissions that warm the planet” became widespread in the United States during Trump’s second term. A stinging election loss in 2024 and lingering inflation concerns – polls show Americans are to blame for gasoline costs biggest concern on the Iran war — despite the clear connection between the two, forcing Democrats to grapple with criticism of affordability rather than endangerment of the planet’s habitability.

‘Unique moment of opportunity’

The Iran war provides a “unique moment of opportunity” for Democrats to tout the advantages of lower pollution options such as electric cars, but the focus should be on “reducing consumer costs, which should have been the message about climate protection all along,” according to Paul Bledsoe, Bill Clinton’s former White House climate adviser.

“I don’t think they’ve grasped the political opportunity yet,” Bledsoe said. “They really need to focus on how these next-generation technologies will benefit the consumer. When you pitch clean energy as first reducing consumer costs and secondly improving the overall economy, people are happy to thirdly reduce emissions.”

Turning this into a winning political message has been a struggle for Democrats, who passed sweeping climate legislation under Joe Biden to spur new jobs in the clean energy sector, but the bill was defeated by Republicans now in control of Congress. Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer recommended Partial revival of incentives for clean energy if his party comes back to power.

But Democrats must do better to highlight solar, wind and battery technologies as a way to reduce U.S. exposure to international fossil fuel costs dictated by global events, according to Ro Khanna, a leading Democratic member of Congress. “I truly believe we missed a moment to do that with the Ukraine war,” he said. “We should have linked the clean energy agenda to the economic security of Americans and our national security, and we must do it again.”

Khanna added that in the long term, the United States “needs to move away from petro-states.” “We need a moonshot for clean tech.”

Such a transition away from fossil fuels, which scientists say is essential for the world to prevent catastrophic climate impacts, has been blocked by Trump, who has taken a “drilling, baby drilling” approach to oil and gas extraction and has taken extraordinary measures to halt domestic clean energy production, which he has called “scams” ​​and “fraud” even in the midst of the Iran crisis.

Trump suggested that rising oil prices might even be beneficial because “we make a lot of money when oil prices go up.” This money mostly flows to big fossil fuel companies; The world’s 100 largest oil and gas companies are making more than $30 billion in unearned profits every hour in the first month of the war.

Trump’s approach is different Definitely than other countries trying to rapidly reduce their exposure to a distant conflict. While electric car sales are increasing rapidly in South Korea and Malaysia, electric rickshaws are selling out in Pakistan. “This is a wake-up call,” Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said. Lately. “We will convert all motorcycles into electric motorcycles. All cars, all trucks, all tractors should turn into electric motorcycles.” [also] Be electric.”

The European Union also plans to accelerate the deployment of clean energy to help ease electricity bills. “Any delayed investment in the energy transition carries the risk of greater costs for society at a later stage,” the European Commission’s draft proposal states. states. The plan comes ahead of a conference in Colombia this month where representatives from 85 countries will meet to create a roadmap for how to move beyond the fossil fuel era.

According to the United Nations, the Iran war is an example of the necessity of making this transition. “Clean energy is the antidote to fossil fuel cost chaos because it is cheaper, safer and faster to market,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell. “Wars do not disrupt sunlight supplies for solar energy, and wind energy does not depend on delicate shipping straits.”

But advocates argue that the rising toll of the climate crisis is the primary reason to transition away from coal, oil and gas. Such effects are becoming increasingly evident in the United States and the rest of the world. resistant It’s the start of the hottest and driest year in recorded history, with record-breaking March heat and drought, heat and wildfires ravaging much of the western United States.

Despite the Trump administration’s disregard for climate science, two-thirds of Americans are concerned about global warming. survey showedMany people in the United States underestimate how concerned others are about the issue because it is not covered by many media outlets.

There is a “stunning silence” among Democrats and climate activists about how cheap, inexhaustible and more locally controlled clean energy is compared to fossil fuels, according to Anthony Leiserowitz, a Yale University scholar who studies public perception of the climate crisis. “And, by the way, it reduces carbon pollution that causes global warming,” he added.