Pushing renewable energy isn’t just a moral and practical imperative to save the planet. It’s a smart way to permanently hamstring the Russian war machine:
Three and a half years of war against Ukraine have weakened Russia’s cash reserves, indicators show, possibly signalling that its economic resilience is beginning to fray.
Russia experts have told Al Jazeera that the country of 143 million people is now almost wholly dependent on export revenue from oil and gas for its cashflow, and a major round of new sanctions could bring it to the negotiating table [John T Psaropoulos, “Russia’s Funding for Ukraine War Set to ‘Contract’ as New Sanctions Loom,” Aljazeera, 2025.10.17].
Oil propped up the Soviet Union; a decline in oil prices precipitated the Evil Empire’s collapse. Instead of trying to prop up the fossil-fuel industry, the United States would serve global security better by building all the solar farms and wind turbines and electric cars it can to reduce global demand for fossil fuels and deny Russia the petro-cash it needs to buy drones from Iran and breakfast for its North Korean commandos.
Related Reading: Trump may say he wants to drill baby drill, but experts say his policy incoherence is hurting fossil-fuel investment.
Stopping the Keystone XL pipeline gave Vlad the Impaler the petrodollars he needed to invade Ukraine. Ash and soot from wildfires in the Siberian taiga are accelerating the loss of Arctic sea ice driving more frequent and deeper polar vortexes. Putin is testing NORAD with nine penetrations over Alaska so far this year.