I think the thing that's important for us to remember is that cost volatility is actually all about fossil fuel dependency.
The more that we are dependent on fossil fuels, it means the more we are dependent on global events. As we saw with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as we see with the choices that come out of the UAE, as well as many other regions of the world, oil and gas development and drilling in Latin America, as well as in the United States. The more dependent we are on oil and gas, the more crazy our prices are going to be, and the more up and down our prices are going to be. And the fact that, for example, we have not developed electric or alternative energy vehicles earlier is one of the reasons why we pay such close attention to gas prices to begin with.
And we would not be as sensitive to the changes in energy costs if we weren't so fossil fuel dependent.
And Donald Trump knows that.
The oil and gas industry knows that.
And that is why they finance huge parts of lobbying our government in order to keep the country entirely dependent on fossil fuels.
Now, if you prefer gas cars and gas stoves, you're free to make that choice.
But what we haven't had is accessible and broad choices for something else. EVs have been in development, but for a very long time, they've been financially inaccessible to a lot of people in this country. The Inflation Reduction Act helped change that. We got huge tax breaks for both new and used EVs. If you're trying to buy one off your neighbor or whatever that may be, as well as many other things that are accessible, whether it's induction stoves, heat pumps for one's home, et cetera. But the oil and gas industry is deploying all of their political and special interest money towards one central goal, which is to keep virtually every American completely dependent on their product.
And Donald Trump is very closely aligned with them.
And not only that, but the larger point is that it's not a coincidence that his authoritarian tactics are tied to fossil fuels.
This is a global phenomenon.
And what we are seeing is authoritarianism is very, very closely linked with oil and gas interests around the world.
That's Putin, that's Trump. That's folks like Bolsonaro. That's a lot of the political instability we see out of Saudi Arabia, the UAE.
And I believe that it is not a coincidence, because you have one central industry that has a clear vested, both political and financial interest, and an authoritarian…that is also increasingly becoming politically unpopular, by the way, because the vast majority of Americans believe that the U.S. should start winding down our subsidization of the fossil fuel industry. They want to see clean energy alternatives available to them and financially accessible to them. And they understand that it's just more volatile to be so chained to fossil fuels.
And so the only way that you can really empower both financially a political sect, is through the fossil fuel industry, the oil and gas industry.
The Koch brothers are an oil and gas dynasty who had such large influence on our political system. They come from an oil and gas dynasty, or rather, came. One of them has passed, there's that, but then you see that link crossing across the world, and the ascent of authoritarianism, paired with the fact that every single one of them is very closely aligned to the fossil fuel industry.
And the ascent of the fossil fuel industry is not a coincidence. It's not a mistake.
And in fact, the democratization of our energy system, which is a means of production that has been privatized and concentrated into the hands of the very few, the democratization of our energy system means that people have the potential. We're doing this in Puerto Rico. When you have a battery pack on your house, when the power goes out, you're not as dependent on a central system. You have a backup reserve in case of an emergency, you can give energy to your neighbor.
This is what the democratization of our energy system looks like.
This is also what a fairer economic system that is less volatile for everyday people looks like as well.
And that is a direct threat to authoritarianism.
It's a direct threat to the extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few.
But it also represents a shift for the betterment of mankind and our democracy.
—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, noting the link between the fossil fuel industry and authoritarian regimes