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Nearly two years ago, the Republican candidate for president of the United States told a group of oil and gas executives that if they ponied up $1 billion for his campaign, they could write their own ticket if he won. My old Irish grandmother liked to say, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” The fossil fuel barons dutifully funneled barrels of money to his campaign and their candidate won by the narrowest of margins.
Then the payback began. Money for EV rebates and charging infrastructure? Gone. Money for renewable energy development? Gone. Regulations unfriendly to thermal generation of electricity? Revoked. It seemed like everything those fossil fuel execs could ever hope for was being granted by their fairy godfather in Washington.
Then on February 28, 2026, the president decided to attack Iran. The chest thumping, eyeliner-using head of the Department of Destruction enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame as he thumped his chest and shouted about “lethality.” The world watched as shock and awe rained down on a third rate military power in the Middle East. Then something completely predictable happened; Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial shipping. Not only did that stop 20 percent of the world’s supply of oil and LNG, it also interrupted the supply of fertilizer needed to grow food for the 8 billion humans who inhabit the Earth.
