The phrase used to justify American military presence in the Middle East – “to stabilize the region” – has been used for decades. It’s been so commonplace for so long that Mark Wahlberg said it in the 1999 movie Three Kings. Stability provided by American naval power enables Middle Eastern countries to ship oil through the oh so important Strait of Hormuz, fueling much of the world’s energy needs.
Without American dominance in the area, regional powers would quickly set at each other, making international commerce impossible and choking the world’s oil supply. As globalist guru Peter Zeihan writes in The End Of The World Is Only The Beginning, “The American-led order … didn’t simply outlaw conflict among their allies; the Americans guarded all global shipping as if it were their own internal commerce, ushering transport into an age of utterly inexpensive sanctity.”
But with Iran hellbent on starting the scariest parts of the Book of Revelation, it seems increasingly as though the region cannot be stabilized. (It would certainly be easier if our regional Arab “allies” spent their massive wealth to help us contain Iran instead of on vanity projects built on human rights abuses.) The world can no longer rely on Middle Eastern oil for its ever-increasing power needs, ergo Americans need to step up our energy production.
All of our energy production.
This fact must be considered as Congressional Republicans seek to repeal clean energy tax provisions in the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The 2022 bill provided credits and deductions for businesses, individuals, and other entities covering a host of non-traditional energy sources, like electric vehicles, energy-efficient cars, aviation fuel, and even nuclear power production.
These measures came at the same time that the Democrats declared a jihad against American oil production, which certainly alienated a lot of people. We’re all still paying the price at the pump (and everywhere else) because Biden attacked American oil, but that doesn’t mean we should attack nontraditional energy out of reciprocity, especially when it’s red states that produce them.
Should Republicans in Congress repeal these tax credits, consumer electricity bills will shoot up – by as much as 7% in some states, according to a report by the Rhodium Group research organization. Total cost of these price increases would cost households $6 billion and businesses $14 billion per year by 2030, according to a report by the firm Energy Innovation.
Republican leaders are sounding the alarm on this danger, which is why Senators Lisa Murkowski, John Curtis, Thom Tillis, and Jerry Moran penned a letter in support of keeping the credits. They wrote:
"The United States produces some of the cleanest and most efficient energy in the world, and an all-of-the-above approach—including support for traditional and renewable energy sources—has long been a hallmark of our energy strategy. To that end, many American companies have made substantial investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure based on the current energy tax framework. A wholesale repeal, or the termination of certain individual credits, would create uncertainty, jeopardizing capital allocation, long-term project planning, and job creation in the energy sector and across our broader economy."
Energy Secretary Chris Wright wants to keep several energy tax credits for previously unappreciated energy technologies like geothermal and nuclear while Dan Brouillette, energy secretary in President Trump’s first term, is calling to keep clean energy tax credits known as 45Y and 48E (for electricity generation), 45V (hydrogen production) and 45X (advanced manufacturing).
When it comes to meeting 21st Century energy needs, we need all possible solutions. So-called progressives who insist that we need to move “beyond oil” are delusional. Again, as Mr. Zeihan writes in his aforementioned book, “We are nowhere near being ‘done’ with oil.” Civilization cannot be sacrificed on the anti-oil altar, and the term clean energy is itself dishonest. The chemicals used to clean and maintain wind farms are hazardous. Electric batteries rot in landfills.
But the more diverse our energy portfolio is, the less we suffer from any one kind of pollution. And given America’s basic geography—the wind never stops blowing in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska or Texas—it makes smart energy and political sense to bring a lot more clean energy online, especially if we’re serious about generating the massive amount of power that artificial intelligence hotspots will require to beat China in the AI revolution.
An all of the above energy policy is better for the economy, the environment, and the planet’s stability – there’s that word again. Let’s avoid the temptation to take revenge on the Democrats and give the world all the energy we can—but America, and maybe our heartland, first of all.