America Chose Energy Reality. Europe Is Catching Up.
For years, European leaders lectured the United States about climate policy. Now, faced with high energy prices, struggling industries, and frustrated consumers, many of those same countries are quietly changing course.
The European Union is looking to ease parts of its carbon-pricing system and has backed away from effectively banning new gasoline-powered cars after 2035. The United Kingdom is reconsidering electric-vehicle mandates and weighing new oil production in the North Sea. Canada has scrapped its unpopular consumer carbon tax while supporting new oil and natural gas infrastructure.
The reason is increasingly difficult to ignore: energy policy has economic consequences.
Germany offers a warning. Europe’s largest economy has struggled with some of the developed world’s highest electricity costs. Across Europe, steel, chemical, cement, and other industrial companies have warned that high power and carbon costs are making it harder to compete and, in some cases, contributing to plant closures. Meanwhile, European energy companies themselves are retreating from ambitious renewable commitments.
The Wall Street Journal reports,
“European fossil fuel companies that once touted renewable goals, including Shell, BP and Norway’s Equinor, have dialed them back and doubled down on more profitable oil and gas. Shell called off a biofuels plant in the Netherlands. BP said it would reduce spending on projects to transition to a greener energy future by more than 70% a year, and only invest in top-tier offshore wind and solar projects in a “capital light” way. Equinor recently abandoned its target to install 10 to 12 gigawatts of renewable power by 2030.”
President Trump has rejected costly climate mandates and prioritized abundant, domestic, reliable energy resources. Instead of forcing consumers and businesses into a politically dictated energy transition, the United States is putting affordability, reliability, jobs, and energy security first. Europe spent years insisting America needed to follow its lead. Now Europe is discovering that an economy can’t afford to sacrifice reliable, affordable energy.
August 27, 2026