In the recent 2026 midterm elections, Democrat candidates ran on two primary issues: "Get Trump," and affordability. They pointed at $5 gasoline and $6 diesel, and they weren't wrong; that was hurting a lot of Americans, and we need to admit that. Fuel prices are one of, if not the most visible commodity prices. Americans drive past those prices shining down on them from neon signs every day; they feel the pinch every time they fill their tanks.
Democrats, or at least many of them, ran on that issue, implying that somehow they could fix it. There's just one problem: That is an utter lie. The simple fact is that every energy policy the new Democrat majority will push will raise, not lower, energy prices, and that's a fact. The Empowerment Alliance's Gary Abernathy recently wrote:
What’s tragic is that Americans who voted for Democrats hoping they will reduce energy costs will soon be faced with a rude awakening. The Democratic Party is driven by an ideology determined to end fossil fuels in exchange for “alternatives” that survive on subsidies and government mandates. Rather than reduce costs, the far-left, socialist-style initiatives favored by Democrats will put catastrophic price pressures on our most abundant and reliable energy sources.
Part of the strategy of the climate change zealots is making gas, diesel and other legacy fuels so expensive that Americans are forced to abandon them. If Democrats have their way, Americans may look back on the days of four-dollar gas with fondness.
That's because the Left will push for the various "green" energy boondoggles, including low-density solar and wind power, which the laws of physics prohibit from producing electricity on the scale of our traditional sources. They will push this in the name of affordability, and yes, they will push it in the name of climate change, and as they usually do, the Left will just make things worse.
Mr. Abernathy makes an added point: There are still a few arrows in President Trump's quiver. Here's one of them.
But before Democrats take power in January, President Trump can make the left’s war on affordable energy less likely to succeed by turning energy security into official policy. Trump should immediately issue an executive order implementing the Affordable, Reliable, Clean Energy Security (ARC-ES) Act, based on legislation that was introduced in Congress last year by Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH).
As defined on a recently unveiled webpage detailing ARC-ES, the policy is defined by three simple concepts:
- Affordable energy is a low-cost method of producing electricity, factoring in the full system cost of an energy source.
- Reliable energy is energy readily available to meet demand 24/7 with minimal interruptions.
- Clean energy is energy that meets our current national air quality standards.
There's a catch; it's not clear that the president can EO in the major tenets of a bill that hasn't yet passed Congress or been signed into law. But the tenets are sound: Affordable, reliable, clean. Solar and wind power aren't reliable, they aren't affordable, and once you factor in all of the costs and effects of production, they aren't even clean. There is one electricity source that is all those things, nuclear power, but Democrats and their climate scold fellow travelers don't want that, either.
This is happening. A quick look at the states where electrical rates, for example, are the highest, is revealing.
What party? https://t.co/0bL5CqoBS7
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) November 15, 2026
In fact, all energy costs are higher in the lower 48 states with the most overwhelmingly Democrat rule. Alaska's energy prices are high as well, but the Great Land is something of a unique case, although that doesn't make filling up one's car or truck any cheaper.
So, is this a feature or a bug?
There exists in today's Democrat Party a rather elitist mind-set about their relationship with ordinary working Americans. There is an apocryphal statement often attributed to the Duke of Wellington, who supposedly opposed passenger railways in Britain because they would "...promote disorder by allowing the lower orders to travel more freely about." That would seem to ring a bell with a number of today's Democrats; they aren't particularly upset at high energy costs, because they don't reckon we need to be living in big, comfortable houses or out driving around anyway. This isn't a new thing. Just look:
"Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket"
— Tony Heller 🇺🇸 🇯🇵 (@TonyClimate) February 2, 2024
- @BarackObama 2008 #ClimateScam https://t.co/7v0Jzx6g8T
This is an issue that Democrats don't understand. This is an issue on which they will almost certainly overstep. Yes, it hurt Republicans in the 2026 midterms; we should be very aware of that. But while the increase now is temporary, any increase due to insane Democrat energy policies will be long-term and pervasive. This is something every Republican hopeful for 2028 and beyond to be looking for.
Here's the thing: The 2028 election, like the 2026 election, may well be fought in large part over energy prices. Democrat policies are terrible on energy. And in 2028, if energy costs, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, home heating oil and electricity blow up the way we may expect, then Republicans should hang that around Democrat necks like a soaking-wet albatross. On the long term, this is a winning issue for the Right, not the Left, and we had better be aware of that.
