Jason Bordoff

But that doesn't mean we are independent.

It doesn't mean we are isolated and insulated anymore.

from what happens halfway around the world.

And the best way to protect ourselves would be to use less oil in the first place, so we were less exposed to these geopolitical shocks, not just to produce more of it.

I should note, it is different for natural gas.

I mean, the price of natural gas in Europe and in Asia

has soared to $15 or $20 per million BTU.

In the U.S., it's three.

And so the price of natural gas here is disconnected.

We do not have a natural gas crisis right now in the same way that Asia and Europe do or did in 2022.

Well, they're turning to us for our energy.

I mean, that's what Europe did after 2022.

They did more renewables, they did more efficiency, but they moved incredibly quickly for all the difficulty building energy infrastructure and discussion of permitting reform that you've written about as eloquently as anyone.

Somehow Germany was able in months to build four import terminals to get more natural gas from the United States because when you really have an energy security crisis, policymakers jump through hoops to figure out how to do something about it.

There is not a policy tool in the policy toolkit large enough to deal with the loss of something like 10 to 15 million barrels a day of global oil supply.

So there is no way to prevent oil prices from going through the roof if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

We've already seen policymakers pull some of the strongest levers they have.

The largest ever release of strategic stockpiles through the International Energy Agency, 400 million barrels.

And the day that was announced, oil prices went up, not down.

because it was perceived as there wasn't a lot of detail around it, but it's just not enough.