Americans Need To Get Mad
May 29, 2026
The headlines are everywhere: $5 per gallon gasoline just as summer driving season starts. And, of course, the finger pointing about how price spikes are driven by the U.S. war with Iran along with them.
But, the question that every American should be asking themselves is: would we really be facing
$5/gallon at the pumps now if we hadn’t let decades of politicized, green-at-any-cost energy policies drive up the cost to $3 or $4 a gallon first? Yes, the price of gasoline has taken a temporary spike in the last few weeks. But, if you look at annual average costs, the price of a gallon rose from about $2.26 in 2020 to $3.42 in 2024 — and that became our new normal. So, if you’re angry about gas prices, you should be angry about that permanent increase not the temporary spike we’re seeing at the moment.
Americans have been driven into a place of complacency with climate fear-mongering and empty green promises. We have accepted years of bad policies driving up the cost of filling our tanks and paying our energy bills as a necessary evil. So-called leaders like U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say if we want to “Save the Earth” we all must pay, right? Well, pardon our French, but that’s bull#$%^.
None of this is new.
The fact is, we’ve already been paying for years.
$9 trillion has been spent globally over the last decade on wind, solar, electric vehicles, energy storage, electrified heat and power grids with very little result. Despite all that investment in renewable energy sources, fossil fuels still supply over 80 percent of all global needs today.
In the U.S., taxpayer-funded renewable energy subsidies made up 85 percent of all federal energy-related support between 2016 and 2022. Meanwhile, the retail price of electricity has risen consistently during that time. According to the Energy Information Administration, the retail price of electricity in the United States has risen at a consistent pace over the last two decades.
In 2001, Americans were paying an average 8.58 cents per kilowatt hour for residential electricity. In 2024, that price was 16.48 cents per kilowatt hour, nearly doubling in just over 20 years. And, the biggest uptick is from 2021 to 2024 when there was a 21% percent increase in the average price American families paid for electricity, and that happened during the exact same period that Biden’s IRA green energy slush fund went into place.
And, back to gas prices.
Take California as an example. Rather than building and investing in infrastructure that will provide affordable, reliable and clean energy for the families and businesses in the state, California’s leaders have taken the state in the opposite direction.
According to a study from University of Southern California, since 1982, California’s oil refineries have decreased by nearly 70% from 43 to 13 operable refineries. That study predicts that if the trends continue, Californians could be paying as much as $8 per gallon of gasoline this year—and that has nothing to do with the war in Iran.
While $8/gallon is an eye-popping figure, California’s drivers have been paying far more than the average American for gasoline for years now. In 2019, when most Americans were still paying around $2.50/gallon, Californians were already closing in on $4/gallon. And, under President Biden’s inflation, while we all suffered spiking gas prices, California still led the pack with the dubious honor of breaking that $5/gallon mark. And, these are the kinds of policies that the green-at-any-cost crowd would like to take to the national stage.
Zero return on green billions.
And, for all that money, renewable energy subsidies have delivered little when it comes to clean, reliable energy security either. The U.S. has in fact become a world leader in reducing emissions, despite, not because of the money dumped into renewable energy. That accomplishment is largely due to the increased use of clean-burning natural gas to produce our electricity. Since 2005, natural gas used for power generation has cut nearly double the emissions that renewable sources like wind and solar have.
Last year, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) cited the rush to so-called
green energy as one of the reasons for increasing electrical grid instability. And, just at a time when Americans are finally enjoying true energy security and independence after decades of dependence on untrustworthy foreign governments for our energy, wind and solar energy place us right back at square one. We rely heavily on China for rare earth imports necessary for wind, solar and electric vehicles—the entire world does in fact.
Take your frustration to the ballot box.
Nearly 60 million Americans from every single state in the nation say they consider energy affordability when deciding how they will vote. Well, it’s time for those voters to take a real stand. We all know the green schemes aren’t working, in fact they’re breaking our economy and crushing the household budgets of everyday Americans. The Bernies and the AOCs have been selling a slick Green New Deal-style message for years. They say they are looking out for the “little guy” like middle-class families and small businesses. But, it’s their policies that have pushed us up the slope of ever-rising energy prices.
American voters may not know all the nuances of the how the electrical grid works. They may
not know the questionable aspects of the renewable energy supply chain that relies on nefarious foreign governments. But, they do know that energy is a factor in almost every aspect of our daily lives and that’s why keeping it affordable, clean and reliable is so important.
As we have been saying for years, energy affordability underlies nearly every economic issue facing American families and businesses. It keeps the costs of manufacturing and shipping low. It fuels reliability that keeps our households safe and healthy and our workplaces productive. It
supports economic growth and job creation for all. Americans should be mad about what has been done to our energy prosperity and independence. And, that frustration should be taken straight to the ballot box next fall when we vote for our leaders from the state capitol to Washington, D.C.