OpinionTrump’s oil crisis is accelerating the end of the fossil fuel era

Ironically for president ‘drill, baby, drill’, this crisis may prove an irreversible tipping point for clean energy

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An oil tanker burns off the coast of Iraq after being hit by an Iranian strike last month amid the US-Israel war on Iran. Photo: AP

Published: 3:00pm, 26 Apr 2026

US President Donald Trump is a long-time climate denier and oil industry ally, who sums up his own energy policy as “drill, baby, drill”. Yet he is doing more than almost anyone to speed up the global shift from fossil fuels to clean energy and electric vehicles.

After the US and Israel struck Iran in late February, Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz and triggered the largest disruption of oil supply in history.

Ironically for Trump and his oil industry donors, this crisis may be an irreversible tipping point for clean energy. For years, fossil fuel advocates touted oil, gas and coal as “reliable” energy. That narrative has been reversed. Fossil fuels have become expensive and unreliable, while renewables are cheap, reliable and secure.

For the first time ever, more than 50 nations will gather this week in Colombia to hash out how to wind down and end their dependence on coal, oil and gas. The history-making conference was planned before the Iran war. But this year’s energy crisis has greatly raised the stakes.

Iranians walk past a giant hoarding reading “The Strait of Hormuz remains closed” in Tehran on Wednesday. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Iran’s closure of the narrow Strait of Hormuz stopped oil tankers reaching their destinations. But that wasn’t all. More than 60 gas and oil sites have been damaged in the conflict so far. Even if a durable ceasefire is reached, these impacts will reverberate for months and years to come.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Ironically for president ‘drill, baby, drill’, this crisis may prove an irreversible tipping point for clean energy

Ironically for president ‘drill, baby, drill’, this crisis may prove an irreversible tipping point for clean energy