Today, as gasoline prices climb and the world wrestles with growing energy instability, something interesting has happened.  The once-deafening chorus of climate activists has become noticeably quieter.

That silence is easily explained: slogans and mandates have collided with the practical demands of modern life.  Not too long ago Gavin Newsome was celebrating California’s economic growth as proof that aggressive clean-energy policies were the future.  Yet more recently, his administration has spoken openly about the need to “responsibly increase oil production.”  That’s a remarkable shift in tone, revealing something important — when energy prices rise and reliability becomes uncertain, ideology gives way to practicality.

The electric vehicle debate tells a similar story.  During the Biden administration, Americans were heavily encouraged — and in some cases pressured — to embrace EVs through tax credits, subsidies, and government mandates.  California even moved toward requiring all new vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2035 and consumers were told EVs were not only the future, but also the answer to high gas prices.

But consumers ultimately make the final decision on such matters.  And in 2024, America’s Big Three automakers reportedly lost tens of billions of dollars on EV programs.  Ford temporarily halted production of its F-150 Lightning after weak demand, acknowledging that buyers were simply not responding as projected as the Wall Street Journal described America’s relationship with electric vehicles as a “messy breakup.”

The larger issue is not whether EV technology has potential.  It clearly does.  The issue is whether governments have the ability to force massive societal transitions before the infrastructure, affordability, reliability, and consumer demand truly exist.  And coming face-to-face with reality the lesson is abundantly clear: when people are struggling to heat homes, power hospitals, or transport food, energy reliability matters more than political narratives.

Wind and solar are noble ideas but modern societies require dependable electricity twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  When the wind stops blowing or the sun sets, backup power systems — usually fueled by natural gas, coal, or oil — must immediately fill the gap.

This helps explain why nations that invested most aggressively in renewable energy now face some of the highest electricity prices in the world.  Countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom have dramatically expanded wind and solar generation, yet consumers continue to see rising energy bills and growing concerns about grid reliability.

To be clear, climate change is real and deserves serious attention.  But earth’s climate has been alternately warming and cooling for more than four billion years and the solution lies not in ‘science with an agenda,’ but rather with innovation — better battery technology, advanced nuclear energy generation, geothermal breakthroughs, and cleaner systems that can actually compete with fossil fuels on reliability and affordability without massive government subsidies.

At the end of the day, most Americans understand something instinctively: energy is more than a political issue.  It is the foundation of modern civilization.  It powers hospitals, factories, transportation, food production, communication, and national security.  And until alternative technologies can reliably and affordably replace fossil fuels at scale, oil, natural gas, and coal will remain essential to the global economy.

That may not be fashionable to say in some circles, but reality has a way of eventually overruling ideology.