We’re in a Fossil Fuel War. Biden Should Say So.

Mar 24, 2022 | Farhad Manjoo
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On one hand, it would seem uncontroversial to point out that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a war enabled and exacerbated by the world’s insatiable appetite for fossil fuels. The way out of this bind would also appear obvious and urgent. By accelerating our transition to cheap and abundant renewable fuels, we can address two grave threats to the planet at once: the climate-warming, air-polluting menace of hydrocarbons and the dictators who rule their supply.

“This narrative has not been out there — that this war is why we need to get off of fossil fuels,” said Leah Stokes, a political scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies environmental politics.. A study she and a co-author published online in 2017 examined the political factors that led to clean energy policies. “What we found was, overwhelmingly, these policies were passed during energy crises,” she told me. It’s when energy is expensive or hard to get that Americans begin to realize that they ought to look for some new way.

I feel like I’m in the upside-down. If the “climate lobby” were truly so powerful, it might have long ago prevented Europe from building its society upon a devilish bargain with Russian energy. For all their “obsession with climate,” Democrats in the United States Senate have been unable to pass legislation to address climate-warming emissions. Instead, their bill has been stymied by a coal-friendly senator. Now the problem of climate change has been all but overshadowed by the war.