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A tugboat tows a barge off the coast of Khasab, on northern Oman\u2019s Musandam Peninsula near the Strait of Hormuz.<\/span>GIUSEPPE CACACE\/AFP via Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This story was originally published by<\/em>\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0Guardian<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n Democrats should<\/span> get louder in championing clean energy\u2019s affordability and resilience from global shocks, according to some of the party\u2019s leading voices on the climate.<\/p>\n As the\u00a0Iran<\/a>\u00a0war roils economies by raising the cost of oil and gas, countries are aiming to accelerate their shift to cleaner energy. But in the US, Donald Trump has sought to kill off any alternative to fossil fuels while opposing Democrats have been reluctant to tie the conflict to any action on the climate crisis.<\/p>\n The\u00a0closure<\/a>\u00a0of the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas normally travels, in the wake of the US and Israel\u2019s attack on Iran caused energy costs to spike around the world. In the US, gasoline has soared\u00a0above<\/a>\u00a0$4.10 a gallon nationally, with Trump\u00a0admitting<\/a>\u00a0the costs could even be \u201ca little bit higher\u201d by November.<\/p>\n During the first month of the Iran war, the world\u2019s largest oil and gas companies made more than $30 billion every hour in unearned profit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Democrats have pointed to this as further\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0of the US president\u2019s\u00a0broken<\/a>\u00a0promises<\/a>\u00a0to lower the cost of living for Americans. But there have been few calls for a pivotal switch away from the volatility of fossil fuels in favor of clean energy in response to the conflict, to the frustration of those who support action on the climate crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a timely clash on climate and costs that Democrats can win, as long as we have the nerve to actually show up to the fight,\u201d said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator, who added \u201ctrue energy independence will be achieved by powering our economy with renewable energy, the fuel sources for which are unlimited, free and independent of geopolitical events.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats will continue to lose the righteous and winnable fight over the future of clean energy if we cede the battlefield to fossil fuel liars and our own party\u2019s misguided climate-hushers,\u201d Whitehouse said.<\/p>\n Climate \u201chushing<\/a>,\u201d in which politicians and businesses downplay or ignore the need to cut planet-heating emissions, has been prevalent in the US during Trump\u2019s second term. A bruising 2024 election loss and ongoing inflation concerns\u2014polls show gasoline costs are Americans\u2019\u00a0top concern<\/a>\u00a0about the Iran war\u2014have left Democrats wrestling with a critique of affordability rather than the imperiled livability of the planet, despite the\u00a0clear<\/a>\u00a0link<\/a>\u00a0between the two<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Iran war<\/span> provides a \u201cunique moment of opportunity\u201d for Democrats to extol the advantages of lower-pollution options like electric cars but the focus should be on \u201creducing consumer costs, which should\u2019ve been the message over climate protection all along,\u201d according to Paul Bledsoe, a former climate adviser to Bill Clinton\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ve grasped the political opportunity yet,\u201d Bledsoe said. \u201cThey have to stay really focused on how these next-generation technologies will provide a consumer benefit. When you pitch clean energy as cutting consumer costs first and improving the overall economy second, people are happy to cut emissions third.\u201d<\/p>\n Translating this into a winning political message has been a struggle for Democrats who in Joe Biden\u2019s administration passed sweeping climate legislation to spur new jobs in the clean energy sector, only for the bill to be\u00a0gutted by Republicans<\/a>\u00a0now in control of Congress. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has\u00a0proposed<\/a>\u00a0a partial resurrection of incentives for clean energy should his party regain power.<\/p>\n But Democrats must do better to pitch solar, wind, and battery technologies as a way to reduce US exposure to international fossil fuel costs dictated by global events, according to Ro Khanna, a leading Democratic member of Congress. \u201cI really believe we missed a moment to do that with the Ukraine war,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should have been linking the clean energy agenda to Americans\u2019 economic security and our national security, and we should do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n Longer term, Khanna added, the US needs to \u201cwean ourselves off the petrostates. We need a moonshot for clean technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Such a shift from fossil fuels, which scientists say is\u00a0imperative<\/a>\u00a0if the world is to avert catastrophic climate impacts, has been stymied by Trump, who has implemented a \u201cdrill, baby drill\u201d approach to oil and gas extraction and has taken extraordinary measures,\u00a0even amid the Iran crisis<\/a>, to halt domestic clean energy generation that he has called a \u201cscam\u201d and a \u201ccon job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWars don\u2019t disrupt the supply of sunlight for solar power, and wind power does not depend on vulnerable shipping straits.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The soaring price of oil may even be beneficial, Trump has suggested, because \u201cwhen oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.\u201d This money is mostly flowing to large fossil fuel corporations, with the world\u2019s largest 100 oil and gas companies making more than $30 billion every hour in unearned profit\u00a0during the first month of the war<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s approach differs\u00a0starkly<\/a>\u00a0from that of other countries that have sought to rapidly reduce their exposure to a faraway conflict. Electric car sales have boomed in South Korea and Malaysia, while in Pakistan electric rickshaws have been selling out. \u201cThis is a wake-up call,\u201d Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto said\u00a0recently<\/a>. \u201cWe will convert all motorcycles into electric motorcycles. All cars, all trucks, all tractors must [also] be electric.\u201d<\/p>\n The European Union, too, plans to accelerate clean energy deployment to help alleviate electricity bills. \u201cEvery delayed investment in the energy transition risks greater cost for society at a later stage,\u201d a draft European Commission proposal\u00a0states<\/a>. The plan comes ahead of a conference in Colombia this month where representatives from 85 countries\u00a0will gather to craft a roadmap<\/a>\u00a0on how to move beyond the fossil fuel era.<\/p>\n The Iran war is a case study for the need to make this transition, according to the United Nations. \u201cClean energy is the antidote to fossil fuel cost chaos, because it is cheaper, safer, and faster to market,\u201d said Simon Stiell, the UN\u2019s climate chief. \u201cWars don\u2019t disrupt the supply of sunlight for solar power, and wind power does not depend on vulnerable shipping straits.\u201d<\/p>\n The mounting toll of the climate crisis, though, is the primary reason to ditch coal, oil and gas, advocates argue. Such impacts are increasingly apparent in the US, as well as the rest of the world, with the country\u00a0enduring<\/a>\u00a0its hottest and driest start to a year in recorded history, with\u00a0record-breaking<\/a>\u00a0March heat and punishing bouts of\u00a0drought<\/a>,\u00a0heat<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0wildfire<\/a>\u00a0strafing much of the US west.<\/p>\n Despite the Trump administration\u2019s dismissal of climate science, two-thirds of Americans are worried about global heating,\u00a0polling has shown<\/a>, with most people in the US underestimating how concerned others are about the topic as it has receded from coverage in many media outlets.<\/p>\n There has been \u201ca surprising silence\u201d from Democrats and climate activists on how clean energy is cheaper, inexhaustible and more locally controlled compared with fossil fuels, according to Anthony Leiserowitz, an academic at Yale University who studies public perceptions of the climate crisis. \u201cAnd, oh by the way, it reduces the carbon pollution causing global warming,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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