President Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran­ — the world’s leading exporter of terrorism — to the praise of world leaders. Time will tell if Iran continues to cooperate or if the military operation will continue.

Regardless of how the situation evolves, the conflict has underscored a persistent vulnerability in U.S. energy security. When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices spiked from California to the Carolinas, making it clear that we’re still too dependent on foreign oil.What the U.S. needs is an all-of-the-above energy strategy that emphasizes domestic production. That means more fossil fuels, more nuclear power, and, yes, more renewable energy too.

That’s how we free ourselves from the whims of the Middle East and protect our nation.

Because of President Trump’s “drill baby drill” energy policy, the U.S. Is largely Thanks to the fracking revolution that began in the 2010s and a recent surge in  domestic oil drilling, the U.S. today is the world’s largest producer of both natural gas and oil. About 25 percent of the world’s natural gas and 21 percent of its oil come from America.

This has helped stabilize global oil markets and made the U.S. less dependent on hostile petrostates like Iran and Venezuela. But that dependence has never completely gone away.

Economists often........

© Independent Journal Review