‘Now is finally the time for Congress to finish the job of lowering consumer energy costs by passing major permitting reforms this year’
By Paul Bledsoe, Real Clear Wire
As President Donald Trump and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu continue to prosecute a war against Iran, the energy narrative in many business outlets is that top U.S. gas exporters, already shipping near capacity, are unable to fill the temporary loss of 20% of global liquefied natural gas volumes triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the temporary loss of Qatar’s gas exports.
But these narratives neglect to recognize how the last 15 years of increasing U.S. production of gas together with deployment of huge new renewable wind, solar and battery storage has largely insulated American consumers from the perfect storm a major war of choice in the Middle East occurring during unprecedented new electricity demand from AI data centers. But these new pressures are quite serious, and mean now is finally the time for Congress to finish the job of lowering consumer energy costs by passing major permitting reforms this year.
A counterfactual is illustrative: where would U.S. consumers and businesses be without the large increases in production of U.S. natural gas and renewable energy over the last decade and a half? Facing far higher power prices.