Americans are paying higher utility bills and pump prices because green state policies have strangled domestic pipelines and refinery capacity, leaving families to bid against the world for energy—including Russian gas that Western sanctions haven't stopped.
The arithmetic is simple: restrict supply while demand holds, and prices rise. According to Fox News, the U.S. now has only 130 operable refineries, down from 301 in 1982, with no major new refinery built since 1976. In New York, the Constitution Pipeline—which would carry natural gas 124 miles from Pennsylvania’s rich gas fields—has been blocked for a decade. The state denied a water permit in 2016, and the company withdrew in 2025 after repeated notices that its application was incomplete. Meanwhile, New York City's Local Law 97 fines large buildings for exceeding emissions limits, and those costs get passed straight to tenants, co-op owners, and small businesses.
Fox News noted that "Democrats in too many state capitals seem determined to choke off other reliable and cost-effective energy sources." Nuclear and coal plants are shutting down, removing affordable power that low-income families depend on.
While blue states choke off American energy, foreign adversaries are finding ways to keep their own exports flowing. Europe Says reported that Ukraine's Defence Intelligence (DIU) has identified 20 vessels involved in exporting Russian oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Russian LNG carrier PORTOVYY, owned by the sanctioned energy giant Gazprom, recently traveled the Northern Sea Route to unload cargo at the Chinese port of Beihai. Two other LNG carriers, AVACHA and CHAIVO, were acquired by a little-known Marshall Islands-registered shell company, Tudor Maritime Ltd, then transferred to the Russian flag and placed under a newly established Russian management company. Since August, both vessels have been transporting LNG from sanctioned Russian projects to China. Russia is preserving critical revenue by systematically expanding a "shadow fleet" through offshore corporate structures.
A state that won't produce or import its own fuel doesn't become independent; it becomes a customer. Americans are forced to bid against the world for supply and accept whatever price is asked—including prices set by foreign wars. Sanctions advocates demand more crackdowns on Russia's shadow fleet, but the vessels keep moving, and the revenue keeps flowing. The only people truly locked out of the energy market are American citizens who can't get fuel from their own backyards. Families on fixed incomes can't opt out of the cold; they just lower the thermostat and pull on another sweater.
Sanctions haven't stopped Russian gas from reaching China, and climate mandates haven't stopped the winter from coming. The question is how long Americans will tolerate paying the bill for policies that empower foreign regimes while impoverishing their own.
