“Europe is desperate for Energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil, one of the greatest fields in the World.” Donald Trump said this month on Truth Social. It is, to use the President’s phrase, “Tragic!!!” But the necessity of oil hasn’t always been recognized.

Back in 2008, while running for the White House, Barack Obama declared that one of the major challenges facing the US is “what we will do about our addiction to foreign oil.” His solution was to switch America to renewables. In that address, known as the “New Energy For America” speech, Obama said, “We simply cannot pretend, as Senator McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem.” He went on, adding: “Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face. It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy.”

In June 2013, Obama again mocked the idea of increased oil and gas drilling. During a speech at Georgetown University, Obama introduced what he called a “new national climate action plan” that he claimed would make the US “a leader – a global leader – in the fight against climate change.” In that speech, Obama used the word “climate” two dozen times. He claimed Congress should “end the tax breaks for big oil companies, and invest in the clean-energy companies that will fuel our future.”

The line from that speech that still resonates today is this: “We can’t just drill our way out of the energy and climate challenge that we face. That’s not possible.”

Those speeches haven’t aged well. I’m not picking on Obama. That said, his rhetoric captured the anti-hydrocarbon/anti-drilling sentiment that prevails among climate activists and, unfortunately, among Europe’s political leaders. As the Battle for Hormuz continues, it’s clear that the global economy has become too dependent on the hydrocarbons and other strategic commodities that flow through the narrow waterway.

Europe’s energy strategy was built on imports and delirious hope. Both just ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz. Since February 25, three days before the US and Israel launched the air war against Iran, the price of natural gas delivered to the TTF gas trading hub in Holland has........

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