Gas prices are spiking and fuel shortages are leading to blackouts. The left blames climate change while the right blames a too-quick transition away from fossil fuels.
Summary
The global energy crisis is driving oil prices up, with U.S. crude hitting more than $80 a barrel, the first time in seven years.
- Energy source shortages caused Lebanon’s two largest power generators to shut down completely, leaving nearly the entire country in a power outage.
- China is facing its own energy crunch after a “rebound in economic activity” resulted in low fuel supplies, forcing China to ramp up previously-declining coal mining activity.
- China’s energy crisis is rippling across the global supply chain, with everything from paper and food to automobiles and shipping services being affected.
- Europe is at the mercy of Russian gas company Gazprom, which is focusing on “shoring up inventories at home” while Europe’s shortage worsens.
- One of the few havens from the global energy crisis is Israel, which has an abundance of natural gas at a fraction of what Europe is paying.
- The Washington Post framed the crisis as a question over climate change and a fight between proponents and opponents of renewable energy.
- CNN’s report predicts the shortage could get worse with winter coming in Europe and “mounting pressure” to “accelerate the transition to cleaner energy” during a coming climate summit in November.
- Newsweek highlighted comments by a professor in Austria who criticized recent energy policy in Europe, which “reality has now finally caught up with ideology” as “young climate activists” were setting energy and climate policy.
- Fox Business reported the spike in prices is a combination of factors while the Biden administration is pressuring the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production amid a rise in gas prices in the United States.
- Breitbart panned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his plan to increase taxes on gas products to pay for green energy plans.
- The Daily Caller framed the crisis as one of our own making as Western countries make what they consider a too-rapid shift to renewables without the necessary investments in fossil fuels to aid in the transition.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
