We're all aware of how energy prices affect every other aspect of our economy. High energy costs raise costs for everything else; every product, every service, every commodity.
We're also all aware how the left, in the form of the Democratic Party, has been doing everything it can to raise energy prices. High energy prices are just jake with Democrats, unless, like now, they can blame it on Republicans, as they are doing with the ongoing operation against Iran and the resulting tension in the Strait of Hormuz.
That's a distraction. There is a well-organized, well-funded effort to jack up American energy costs, and a new RealClearEnergy piece by energy expert and Communications Director for Power the Future, Larry Behrens, has the details.
While geopolitical instability and bule state tax rates are big drivers for the bigger price, there’s more to it. And right on cue, the usual suspects on the left are suddenly pretending to care about “high prices.” They’ll scream at everyone with tired cries of everyone oil companies and “corporate greed,” but they turn a blind eye to the real culprit staring them in the face: more than 600 lawsuits filed by their own green activist allies. And many of their friends running to the courthouse are bankrolled by foreign money. All with the goal of deliberately strangling American energy production.
This isn’t speculation. It’s a coordinated, well-funded legal war. The Natural Resources Defense Council brags it sued the Trump administration 163 times, taking credit for killing the Keystone XL pipeline. The Sierra Club proudly claims it filed over 300 cases against the first Trump term and launched more than 100 new lawsuits and interventions in 2025 alone. Earthjustice has racked up over 200 suits. For those keeping score, that’s more than 600 lawsuits in total targeting energy policies and projects. These aren’t friendly neighborhood environmental watchdogs. This is weaponized litigation designed to block pipelines, delay drilling, stop natural gas terminals, and tie up every responsible domestic energy project in endless court battles. And these groups are all getting checks from way out of town.
This is legal warfare, pure and simple. It's being done in the name of climate change, in the name of the environment, in the name of "green" energy — you name it — but the end result is higher costs, not just at the gasoline pump, but everywhere, in every way.
Mr. Behrens names names:
You may have never heard of Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and his network, but they’re main-lining cash to these groups. According to a recent Americans for Public Trust report, entities founded by Wyss have funneled more than $673 million into U.S.-based advocacy groups. That foreign cash flows to outfits like the League of Conservation Voters, Fund for a Better Future, Planned Parenthood, Indivisible, and the very environmental litigation machines filing these suits. Fox News highlighted it clearly: Wyss’s money advances radical environmentalism, election law changes, and direct political attacks.
You won’t be shocked to learn the same politicians who rail against “foreign interference” in our elections say nothing when Swiss billions attack American energy independence.
Of course they don't. With the left, there appears to be no such thing as principles, only expedience. As I'm fond of pointing out, it's principals, not principles; it's all about The Side. If they can attack Republicans over it, then high energy costs are suddenly troubling. If energy prices are inflated by ongoing lawfare against the energy sector, then it's just fine. Principals, not principles.
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Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman (WY-At Large) has introduced legislation to try to bring this to a halt, which bill will almost certainly be opposed by Democrats, who, we must admit, are awfully good at keeping their caucus together; they march in lockstep, with few exceptions.
State legislatures and environmental extremists are trying to scapegoat the same producers who keep America running with fines and lawsuits over legal production in the past, lawful activity in the present, and imagined transgressions in the future. The Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026 shields America’s energy producers from these relentless attacks, supporting our affordable energy sector, preserving American jobs, and restoring clarity to our nation’s energy policy.
“Energy security is national security, and we will not self-sabotage our critical industries with a cascade of costly lawsuits and extreme penalties that jeopardize American drilling,” said Rep. Harriet Hageman. “America’s energy producers should be protected from the dangerous legal precedent that would be set by the retroactive punishment of lawful activity.”
Would this bill help? More importantly, would it pass constitutional muster? (Yes, I know, that's a standard that is too often ignored these days.) More importantly still, what are the odds of it becoming law? It seems something President Trump would sign, should it land on his desk, but what are the odds of it making it through Congress and hence to the Oval Office? I'm guessing, "Not likely." For one thing, it's unlikely to breach the united Democrat front in the Senate to make it to the 60-vote threshold.
Principals, not principles.
The United States is, right now, since January of 2025, in fact, in the middle of a surging energy renaissance. We are, once more, a net energy exporter, but there is so much more to be done. Refining capacity is a continuing problem; here in Alaska, despite sitting on a veritable ocean of petroleum, we still pay high prices for gasoline, diesel fuel, and home heating oil. Why? Refineries. Oil is shipped down to the lower 48, and gasoline, diesel, and heating oil are shipped back to Alaska, a process that is inefficient, wasteful, and costly. But in places like California, bastions of the left, gasoline prices are high, and the oil companies are shutting down their refineries, in part because of the hostility of the state's leftist government, in part because of ongoing lawfare against anything energy-related. Except, of course, eagle-killing wind turbines and inefficient, habitat-disrupting solar farms. And the other part is the ongoing legal challenges to any energy development, everywhere from Prudhoe Bay to the Gulf of America; and now we have some of the names of the leftist individuals and organizations who are dumping money into keeping American energy costs as high as possible — and only complain when they can blame those costs on Republicans.
That's the left for you. Principals, not principles.
