Greens gave Iran the Hormuz stranglehold

If Europeans hadn’t outlawed the fracking that has made the U.S. a net energy exporter, they would need much less Middle East oil and gas.

By Lawrence Solomon, published by the Financial Post

Iran did not create the strategic leverage it currently derives from the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints. That accomplishment rests with the environmental lobby, which over decades has spent tens of billions of dollars opposing fossil fuel development in the name of preventing climate catastrophe.

Summary

While fossil fuel resources are abundant not only in the Middle East but also across Western Europe and other regions, the deliberate choice by European nations to forgo these resources has left them vulnerable to external pressures. The U.S. shale revolution serves as a stark illustration of how energy independence was achievable; by embracing hydraulic fracturing and easing regulatory barriers, the U.S. transitioned from being the world’s largest oil importer to its top producer and exporter, thereby enhancing its diplomatic leverage and reducing its reliance on foreign energy.

The irony lies in the fact that the environmental lobby, through its advocacy for net-zero policies and fossil fuel restrictions, has inadvertently empowered adversaries like Iran while exacerbating energy scarcity in the West.

Continue to the publisher’s website here to read this commentary in full.

Lawrence Solomon, founding columnist at Financial Post and managing director of Energy Probe Research Foundation, is the author of seven books, including The Deniers.

About Lawrence Solomon

Lawrence Solomon is one of Canada's leading environmentalists. His book, The Conserver Solution (Doubleday) popularized the Conserver Society concept in the late 1970s and became the manual for those interested in incorporating environmental factors into economic life. An advisor to President Jimmy Carter's Task Force on the Global Environment (the Global 2000 Report) in the late 1970's, he has since been at the forefront of movements to reform foreign aid, stop nuclear power expansion and adopt toll roads. Mr. Solomon is a founder and managing director of Energy Probe Research Foundation and the executive director of its Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute divisions. He has been a columnist for The Globe and Mail, a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the editor and publisher of the award-winning The Next City magazine, and the author or co-author of seven books, most recently The Deniers, a #1 environmental best-seller in both Canada and the U.S. .

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