The ongoing conflict with Iran and the resulting global fuel crisis serve as a stark reminder that true energy security and independence will remain elusive as long as we depend on fossil fuels. Whether through wars over oil and gas access or attacks on power plants and energy grids, reliance on finite resources exacerbates a country's vulnerability.
Ukraine's Energy Grid Under Attack
Recent reports of Russia's deadly assaults on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including drone strikes on power stations, highlight the urgency. Kyiv is racing against time to prepare for another winter of attacks on its energy grid. No nation can achieve energy security or independence when its fuel supply is finite and fossilized, and its power plants and grids are centralized and dependent on fossil fuels. These become easy targets for adversaries.
A Path to True Security
There is an alternative: decarbonized and decentralized energy. By using local, renewable resources to power, heat, and cool communities, with battery storage for backup, communities can break free from precarious dependence on power plants and grids. Ukrainian communities are increasingly adopting this approach in response to Russian attacks. Municipalities across the country are making the switch rapidly.
Global Shift to Renewables
The Iran war is accelerating the transition to renewable energy. Countries like Spain are quickly moving to renewables, insulating themselves from gas price shocks and protecting against future blackouts. However, in this global rush to abandon fossil fuels, we must not leave frontline communities behind. With no end to Russian aggression in sight, more Ukrainian power plants and grids will be bombed, leaving many without power, heat, or water. Many Ukrainians who had heat last winter had already switched to solar power, heat pumps, and battery storage, aided by local nonprofits like EcoAction and Ecoclub and international donors.
Supporting Community Resilience
Initiatives like the Hromada Project, named after the Ukrainian term for community, are essential in helping Ukrainians endure the war by connecting local NGOs to global public and private support. This is precisely what governments should be doing: helping communities worldwide become more energy secure and independent by sourcing power locally from renewables, storing energy in batteries, and electrifying everything. China has already dominated global wind, solar, battery, and electric vehicle markets through such approaches.
Instead, the Trump administration and its Republican allies seek to keep the US addicted to fossil fuels. By weaponizing the Department of Defense to stall onshore wind development, repealing tax incentives for renewables, and using taxpayer funds to bribe clean energy developers to abandon projects, they endanger our ability to adopt secure, affordable, and clean energy technologies. Forcing reliance on aging fossil fuel infrastructure exposes Americans to rising electricity rates and riskier grid conditions.
Before another war is waged and defense budgets doubled, now is the time to invest in what truly makes us secure and independent. Transitioning away from fuels that start wars and toward energies that are decentralized, infinite, and available in every community is the path to real freedom. It is within our grasp.
Lloyd Doggett serves Texas's 37th district in the House of Representatives and is a member of the Ukraine caucus and the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. Michael Shank, PhD, is adjunct faculty at New York University's Center for Global Affairs and at George Mason University's Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
